Israeli missile attacks resulted in the deaths of three Syrian soldiers

• “Multiple” Israeli missile attacks on Syria kill at least three soldiers, state media report.
• Strikes took place near capital Damascus and coastal province of Tartous, SANA says.
• Syrian air defence forces confronted the “aggressions” and downed some of the missiles, it says.

According to state media, “several” Israeli missile attacks on Syria have resulted in the deaths of at least three Syrian soldiers and the injury of another three.

The missile attacks, which took place at 8:50 p.m. (17:50 GMT), on Sunday, according to the SANA news agency, were directed towards “certain places” in the countryside close to the capital Damascus and the seaside province of Tartous.

According to SANA, which cited an unnamed military source, Syrian air defence forces challenged the “aggressions” and shot down a number of the missiles.

According to the report, “the violence resulted in the deaths of three soldiers and the injuries of three more.”

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Attacks on Tartous originated from the Mediterranean Sea, while those on Damascus came from a direction southeast of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.

The attacks resulted in some “material damage” in addition to the deaths, the military source informed SANA.

Israeli military officials chose not to comment.

Israel has conducted hundreds of airstrikes inside Syria since civil conflict broke out there in 2011, hitting government sites as well as partner groups supported by Iran and Hezbollah soldiers. The Israeli military has defended its assaults in Syria as necessary to stop Iran from establishing a presence on its doorstep, though Israel rarely speaks on specific raids there.

An air defence facility in Tartous province, where Iranian-backed militias are active, was the target of the raids, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which also provided information on the attacks on Sunday.

The monitor, which has a broad network of informants in Syria, claimed that the Tartous facility is 8 kilometres (miles) away from a Russian base.

It stated that medics had arrived quickly at the Tartous raid location.

Additionally, two missiles were said to have hit a Syrian government military facility in the Al-Qutayfah region in the countryside of Damascus.

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