Syria Repels Israeli Missile Attack as IDF Reports Rocket Launch Toward Israel

TEL AVIV (Sputnik) - Syrian air defense troops repelled an Israeli missile attack on Homs shortly after midnight on Sunday. Separately, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that an anti-aircraft rocket had been launched from Syrian territory toward Israel on Saturday night.

Syrian state media reported shortly after midnight on Sunday that Arab Republic's air defense systems had repelled an attack in the Homs Governorate in central Syria.

"At about 12:20 am, the Israeli enemy launched an aerial act of aggression from the direction of northeastern Beirut, targeting some sites in the vicinity of Homs City," a military source said.

Syrian air defenses responded, intercepting Israeli missiles and shooting them down most of them. Some material damage was caused in the raid, but no injuries were reported.

Separately, the Israeli military indicated that an anti-aircraft rocket had been launched from Syria toward Israel Saturday. "The rocket appears to have exploded in the air over Israeli territory," the IDF said on Twitter. The military added that no special instructions were issued for Israeli civilians, and no injuries or casualties were reported. The IDF confirmed that Israeli aircraft had targeted a Syrian air defense battery from which the errant missile was reportedly launched.

A Sputnik correspondent reported that a loud bang was heard in Tel Aviv and its suburbs before the IDF issued its statement.

Israel has launched thousands of air raids against Syria over the past decade as the security situation in the Arab Republic deteriorated thanks to a US, Turkish and Gulf sheikdom-backed dirty war. Damascus has blasted Tel Aviv, with whom it has no formal diplomatic relations, for its aggression. Israel has often claimed that it's targeting Iranian or "Iranian-backed" militias operating on Syrian territory. Syria has indicated that Iranian advisors and Lebanese Hezbollah militias are operating in the country at the invitation of its government, and helping to battle foreign-backed jihadist militants.

Israeli air attacks are often launched over Lebanese airspace, with the IDF using the area in the knowledge that Syrian air defense forces may hesitate to target Israeli aircraft over its neighbor's airspace, given the risk hitting civilian aircraft or having missile debris land in Lebanese territory.