Israeli army hits Syrian missile batteries after the explosion in the place of the Dimona nuclear site in the country’s south.
The Israeli army says a Syrian anti-aircraft missile has missed its goal and exploded near a nuclear facility in Dimona city in the u . s .’s south, an attack a military spokesman stated became possibly an accident.
There had been no immediate reviews of any injuries or harm in the incident that triggered caution sirens in the place close to the secretive Dimona nuclear reactor. The Israeli navy stated the nuclear site became now no longer hit through the blast.
Reporting from West Jerusalem, Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett stated the Syrian missile that fell close to Dimona became a great blast that might be heard in Jerusalem, about 150km (93 miles) away from the site.
An Israeli navy spokesman stated the Syrian missile have been fired at Israeli aircraft all through an earlier strike and had overflown its target and reached the Dimona area.
The errant Syrian missile became an SA-5, one in all numerous fired at Israeli air pressure planes, according to the spokesman.
The Israeli navy stated that during reaction to the release, it attacked numerous missile batteries in Syria, which includes the only that fired the projectile that struck its territory.
“A surface-to-air missile became fired from Syria to Israel’s southern Negev. In response, we struck the battery from which the missile became released and extra surface-to-air batteries in Syria,” the Israeli military stated.
‘Syria intercepts Israeli attack’
Syria’s state news agency, SANA, stated Syrian air defences intercepted the Israeli attack that centered regions in the Damascus suburbs early on Thursday.
“Air defences intercepted the rockets and downed maximum of them,” the SANA company stated. However, 4 soldiers had been injured in the attack and a few material harm passed off, it stated.
According to the Britain-primarily based totally Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), Israeli missiles hit the air defence base of the Syrian government in the city of Dmeir – more or less 40km (25 miles) northeast of Damascus.
Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil conflict in 2011, Israel has routinely performed raids in Syria, mostly focused on Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah forces in addition to government troops. But it has not often publicly mentioned them.
Israel has lengthy sought to save you bitter foe Iran from setting up itself in the conflict-torn nation.
The modern day missile release comes as tensions run high among Israel and Iran, with Tehran promising “revenge” after the sabotage of its Natanz uranium enrichment plant.
Iran stated it believes Israel became at the back of the incident – while a small explosion hit the plant’s power distribution in advance this month.
Israel did now no longer declare duty for the incident, however unsourced media reviews in the u . s . attributed it to the Israeli protection offerings carrying out a “cyber operation”.
The New York Times, quoting unnamed US and Israeli intelligence officials, additionally stated there have been “an Israeli role” in the assault.
“In the context of what’s been going on in current weeks, the very high tensions among Iran and Israel over Iran’s nuclear programme and the attack ascribed to Israel at the Iranian Natanz facility, there has been immediate subject that this can be the following step on this shadow conflict, a very risky and escalatory one,” stated Fawcett.
“However, what the Israeli navy stated passed off became that a Syrian anti-craft battery focused on the incoming Israeli ordnance, overflew its goal and went all of the manner into Israel and exploded over southern Israel. That is something that there is a few precedent for,” he explained.