Report: Israeli Air Force attacked numerous Hezbollah targets in Syria

(JPost) Israeli fighter jets penetrated Syrian airspace and attacked numerous Hezbollah targets in the South of Syria, according to Syrian media Saturday.

Estimated targets included a weapons convoy destined for Hezbollah fighters traveling through Syria. According to reports, up to a dozen Israeli war planes conducted the mission close to the Lebenon-Syria border in the Qalamoun Mountains region.

Defense officials declined to comment on the report.

This would be the first attack attributed to Israel since Russia began operating in the area.

Israel has reportedly struck Hezbollah in Syria several times over the past year, although the military regularly declines to comment on foreign media reports. 

Earlier this year, the Israel Air Force reportedly struck a vehicle located in a Druse village in southwestern Syria, killing Hezbollah men and a pro-Assad militiaman, as well as a military base in Lebanon.

The Druse village, Hader, is located near the Golan Heights.

The second strike targeted a Lebanese military installation near the Syrian border, wounding six, Arab media reported. It is believed to belong to a pro-Syrian Palestinian faction. In a newsflash, Syrian state television quoted a military source as saying that Israeli planes had struck a base belonging to the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a faction that backs President Bashar Assad.

The earlier strike on the Syrian Druse village allegedly involved an Israeli drone attack on a car on the outskirts of Hader. That attack killed three members of a militia fighting alongside the Syrian military. The attack was reported by Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV and other Lebanese media.

The dead were identified as members of the National Defense Forces, a pro-Damascus militia whose members often come from the areas where they fight.