DAMASCUS: Syrian air defences engaged an "enemy target" near the border with Lebanon west of Damascus overnight, state news agency SANA reported on Saturday.
"Our air defences confronted an enemy target that penetrated airspace above the area of Deir al-Ashair in the Damascus countryside," SANA said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said air defences reacted to "targets aiming at regime and loyalist positions in Deir al-Ashair" near the Lebanese border.
The Britain-based monitor, which relies on sources inside Syria for its information, did not specify who was reponsible for the attack
It said Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which has been backing the Damascus government in Syria's seven-year civil war, was present in the area.
The Russia-backed government often accuses Israel of targeting its military positions.
Israel has carried out numerous raids in recent years, targeting government forces and their allies from Iran and Hezbollah.
Last week, Syrian air defences confronted another "enemy attack" west of Damascus. Then too the Observatory said it was unable to determine who was responsible.
Last month, Syria accused Israel of bombing a military post in the northern province of Aleppo, where the Observatory reported at least nine pro-regime fighters died.
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Syrian air defenses engage ‘enemy target’: state media
Syrian air defenses engage ‘enemy target’: state media
- Syrian air defences were activated in a similar way over west Damascus last Thursday night
- Israel, concerned that Iran's growing presence in Syria poses a threat to its security, has struck dozens of Iranian and Iran-backed positions in Syria
Iraq: Ankara agrees to take back Turkish citizens among Daesh detainees transferred from Syria
Iraq’s foreign minister said on Monday Turkiye had agreed to take back Turkish citizens from among thousands of Islamic State detainees transferred to Iraq from Syria when camps and prisons there were shut in recent weeks.
Iraq took in the detainees in an operation arranged with the United States after Kurdish forces retreated and shut down camps and prisons which had housed Islamic State suspects for nearly a decade.
Baghdad has said it will try suspects on terrorism charges in its own legal system, but it has also repeatedly called on other countries to take back their citizens from among the detainees.
Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told US envoy Tom Barrack in a meeting that Iraq was in talks with other countries on the repatriation of their nationals, and had reached an agreement with Turkiye.
In a separate statement to the UN Human Rights Council, Hussein said: “We would call the states across the world to recover their citizens who’ve been involved in terrorist acts so that they be tried in their countries of origin.”
The fate of the suspected Islamic State fighters, as well as thousands of women and children associated with the group, has become an urgent issue since the Kurdish force guarding them collapsed in the face of a Syrian government offensive.
At the height of its power from 2014-2017, Islamic State held swathes of Syria and Iraq in a self-proclaimed caliphate, ruling over millions of people and attracting fighters from other countries. Its rule collapsed after military campaigns by regional governments and a US-led coalition.
Iraq took in the detainees in an operation arranged with the United States after Kurdish forces retreated and shut down camps and prisons which had housed Islamic State suspects for nearly a decade.
Baghdad has said it will try suspects on terrorism charges in its own legal system, but it has also repeatedly called on other countries to take back their citizens from among the detainees.
Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told US envoy Tom Barrack in a meeting that Iraq was in talks with other countries on the repatriation of their nationals, and had reached an agreement with Turkiye.
In a separate statement to the UN Human Rights Council, Hussein said: “We would call the states across the world to recover their citizens who’ve been involved in terrorist acts so that they be tried in their countries of origin.”
The fate of the suspected Islamic State fighters, as well as thousands of women and children associated with the group, has become an urgent issue since the Kurdish force guarding them collapsed in the face of a Syrian government offensive.
At the height of its power from 2014-2017, Islamic State held swathes of Syria and Iraq in a self-proclaimed caliphate, ruling over millions of people and attracting fighters from other countries. Its rule collapsed after military campaigns by regional governments and a US-led coalition.
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