Assad regime anti-aircraft fire targeting Israeli missiles over Damascus, January 2019

Israel has reportedly carried out two nights of airstrikes on targets outside Syria’s capital Damascus, in its ongoing campaign against the Assad regime, Iran, and Iran-supported militia.

Syrian State news agency SANA said on Sunday that missiles were fired on “hostile targets coming from the direction of occupied territories” — the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. As always, it insisted that the regime military intercepted the missiles, both near the capital and in Quneitra Province in southwest Syria.

Israel fired at least three missiles. Two of the strikes targeted a Syrian army brigade which supervises the country’s Quneitra Province, while the third missile was destroyed by Syrian defenses.

On Friday night Israel hit the al-Kisweh base near Damascus several times. The facility, a recurrent target for the Israelis, hosts Iran, Hezbollah, and Iranian-led forces and storage facilities.

Conforming to standard practice, the Israel Defense Forces did not confirm the attacks.

Throughout the eight-year Syrian conflict, Israel has carried out airstrikes inside the country. Initially, the operations were to disrupt the transfer of weapons from Iran to Hezbollah and to prevent Iranian and Hezbollah forces from establishing positions near the Golan Heights.

However, since 2017 the strikes have expanded across the country as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded a full withdrawal of Iranian forces and Iranian-led militia from Syria.

After a Russian intelligence plane was downed — by Assad regime defenses — during Israeli attacks last September, there was a pause in the raids. However, they resumed at the start of 2019.

Targets have included regime facilities connected with missile and chemical weapons programs, as well as Iranian positions near Damascus and in central Syria.