Syrian Missile Hits Lebanon during Israeli Raid on Damascus

Israel carried out a missile attack near the Syrian capital of Damascus and its southern suburbs early Thursday that wounded four soldiers, Syria's state media said.

State news agency, SANA, quoted an unidentified military official as saying that Syrian air defenses were able to shoot down most of the missiles before they hit their targets. SANA said some of the missiles were fired by Israeli warplanes flying over neighboring Lebanon.

The strikes also caused "some material damage."

The source did not provide details on the targets.

The strikes near the capital "destroyed a weapons depot likely used by the Lebanese Hizbullah militia," among other Iran-backed groups, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"It also killed three ... Iran-backed militia fighters," said the monitor.

The Observatory said it could not determine their nationalities but that they were all non-Syrians.

Al-Manar TV of Lebanon's Hizbullah said one of the Syrian air defense missiles exploded near the Lebanon-Syria border and was heard in parts of southern Lebanon. It later said the missile crashed near the Lebanese border village of Houla.

Israel has launched hundreds of strikes against Iran-linked military targets in Syria over the years but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.

Israel views Iranian entrenchment on its northern frontier as a red line, and it has repeatedly struck Iran-linked facilities and weapons convoys destined for Hizbullah.