DAMASCUS: Syrian air defense was intercepting ‘hostile targets’ in the country’s central region on Sunday evening, state media said, a phrase usually used to refer to Israeli strikes on the war-torn country.
“Our air defense systems are intercepting hostile targets in the airspace of the central region” of the country, the official SANA news agency said.
“Israeli strikes” targeted a “weapons depot south of Homs and a rockets depot in the eastern Hama countryside,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP, adding that the sites belonged to the Syrian army.
Earlier on Sunday, an Israeli strike in Syria targeted trucks transporting aid for Lebanese people, wounding three aid workers, the Observatory said.
On Friday, Lebanon said an Israeli air strike on the Syrian border cut off the main international road linking the two countries.
Since Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country, mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters, including Hezbollah.
Israeli authorities rarely comment on individual strikes in Syria, but have repeatedly said they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence there.
The strikes have increased in recent days, including on areas near the border with Lebanon.
Tens of thousands of people have crossed into Syria over the past week, fleeing heavy Israeli air strikes on Lebanon.
Syria air defense intercepts ‘hostile targets’: state media
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Syria air defense intercepts ‘hostile targets’: state media
- “Our air defense systems are intercepting hostile targets in the airspace of the central region” of Syria, official SANA news agency said
Syrian government says it controls prison in Raqqa with Daesh-linked detainees
- Prison holds detainees linked to Daesh, and witnessed clashes in its vicinity between advancing Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters
Syria’s Interior Ministry said on Friday it had taken over Al-Aktan prison in the city of Raqqa in northeastern Syria, a facility that was formerly under the control of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The prison has been holding detainees linked to the militant group Daesh, and witnessed clashes in its vicinity this week between advancing Syrian government forces and the SDF.
It was not immediately clear how many Daesh detainees remain in Al-Aktan prison as the US military has started transferring up to 7,000 prisoners linked to the militant Islamist group from Syrian jails to neighboring Iraq. US officials say the detainees are citizens of many countries, including in Europe.
“Specialized teams were formed from the counter-terrorism department and other relevant authorities to take over the tasks of guarding and securing the prison and controlling the security situation inside it,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Under a sweeping integration deal agreed on Sunday, responsibility for prisons housing Daesh detainees was meant to be transferred to the Syrian government.
The SDF said on Monday it was battling Syrian government forces near Al-Aktan and that the seizure of the prison by the government forces “could have serious security repercussions that threaten stability and pave the way for a return to chaos and terrorism.”
The US transfer of Daesh prisoners follows the rapid collapse of Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria. Concerns over prison security intensified after the escape on Tuesday of roughly 200 low-level Daesh fighters from Syria’s Shaddadi prison. Syrian government forces later recaptured many of them.
