RNA - The senior Lebanese politician said the retaliation to repeated Israeli airstrikes in Syria was a "very strong warning" to Tel Aviv, adding that the Damascus response has achieved a "balance of horror" with Israel.
Berri warned that the Syrian retaliation targeted the occupied Golan Heights, but next time it will be deep in Israel.
Speaking to the Associated Press on Friday, the Speaker stated that Israel and the US cannot bear the consequences of a wide-scale regional war.
"There are American interests in Syria and if there is a larger war, I don't think even the American President can bear the consequences," he stressed.
The Israeli army claimed Thursday it hit dozens of Iranian military bases in Syria overnight in responce to attack from within Syrian territory. But, according to battlefield reports, the Syrian Army has intercepted tens of incoming Israeli missiles, and then, reciprocated the assault with a barrage of rocket attacks on military centers in the occupied Golan Heights.
The Syrian Army Command also said its air defense systems have managed to intercept and destroy the biggest part of Israeli rockets fired at military bases in the Arab country.
The Syrian Army Spokesman reaffirmed "the alertness of the army and readiness to defend the sovereignty of the homeland against any aggression”, stressing that attempts to support terrorism would prove futile.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that some 28 Israeli aircraft fired around 60 air-to-surface rockets in a massive overnight strike in Syria on Thursday morning, adding that Syrian air defense systems managed to intercept more than half of the missiles.
Israeli forces bombed the Syrian territory for two hours between 1:45 am and 3:45 am local time on Thursday, according to reports.
The Russian military said in a statement that “28 Israeli F-15 and F-16 planes" were involved in the assault, while “Syrian air-defense systems shot down more than half of the rockets as they repelled the Israeli attack”.
Tel Aviv said 20 rockets were fired into the Golan Heights early Thursday, and acknowledged that its well-known Iron Dome has only shot down 4 projectiles.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesman, Lt Col Jonathan Conricus, told reporters that "several but not all" of the rockets were intercepted by Israeli defences, as minutes past midnight, approximately 20 projectiles were fired towards the line of IDF positions in the Golan Heights.
The military admitted that "Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system brought down four of the rockets".
Other sources mentioned 50 to 68 rockets were fired at Israeli targets after midnight in reprisal for earlier missile attacks on Syria.
The United States, Britain and France have also carried out a string of missile airstrikes against Syria in mid-April over a suspected chemical attack against the town of Douma in Eastern Damascus.
According to Fars News Agency, Israel has seized the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and continued to occupy two-thirds of the strategically-important territory ever since. The Tel Aviv regime has built tens of illegal settlements in the area since its occupation and has used the region to carry out a number of military operations against the Syrian government.
The Tel Aviv regime has launched sporadic attacks against various targets on Syrian soil over the past few years, in assaults slammed by Damascus as attempts to boost terrorist groups who have been suffering heavy defeats in battle against Syrian government forces.
The Syrian army has also seized Israeli-made arms and military equipment from militants fighting pro-Damascus forces on numerous occasions ever since the war of militancy started in the country. Israel has also admittedly been providing medical treatment to the militants wounded in the Arab country.
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