Iran:

Israel's Attacks on Syria Meant to Help Terrorists

Rasa - Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi condemned Israel's recent attack on Syria, and called it an attempt by the main supporter of Syrian terrorist groups to retaliate their many defeats against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

News ID: 437617

Date: 11 May 2018 - 21:53

RNA - "The Zionist regime's repeated attacks on Syrian soil under self-proclaimed, baseless pretexts amount to a blatant violation of Syria's sovereignty and goes against all international conventions," Qassemi said in an early Friday statement.

The statement came after Israel attacked dozens of targets inside Syria in what the Tel Aviv regime claimed was its most extensive strike against the Arab country in decades.

Qassemi said the terror groups were in fact "proxies" waging war on behalf of the US, Israel and their regional allies.

"Today, the main supporters of these groups are directly attacking and invading Syrian territories in an attempt to avenge the many failures of their self-created terrorists and tip the scales in their favor," he asserted.

"The Zionist regime cannot stand peace and stability in the region and sees its own safety in making the region all the more unstable," Qassemi said.

The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman blasted the international community for giving the Israeli regime the green light by refusing to take action in the face of its crimes.

The Israeli army said it hit dozens of Iranian military bases in Syria overnight in response 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 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 defenses, 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 defense 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.

According to Fars News Agancy, 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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