Israel strikes installation near Damascus

DAMASCUS - Syrian state media blamed Israel on Thursday for a missile attack on a military installation near Damascus International Airport that shook the capital with the force of the blasts.

Israeli Minister of Intelligence Yisrael Katz would not comment directly on the incident, but said any similar strike would be in line with established policy to interrupt the transfer of weapons to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

"It absolutely matches our declared policy, a policy that we also implement," Katz told Israel's Army Radio.

Israel is widely believed to have carried out several airstrikes in recent years on advanced weapons systems in Syria as well as on Hezbollah positions. It rarely comments on such operations.

The widely followed Diaries of a Mortar Facebook page, which is run by activists in Damascus, reported several explosions at 3:42 am that could be heard and felt across the capital.

Syria's state-run SANA news agency said Israel had fired several missiles from inside the Occupied Golan Heights south of the capital striking a military installation southwest of the airport, which serves both military and civilian flights. It reported several explosions and material damage but no casualties.

The blasts were felt at least 15 kilometers away.

"The buildings shook from the force of the blast," said a media activist who goes by Salam al-Ghoutawi, of the Ghouta Media Center, in the city's opposition-held northeastern suburbs. He said he heard the roar of jets in the distance at the time of the blasts.

A string of explosions could be seen silhouetted against the night sky in a video, with blazing debris flying out of the blast. The light of the explosions illuminated the sizable blast cloud that took shape nearby.

(China Daily 04/28/2017 page11)