Explosions Near Syrian Capital in Apparent Israeli Strikes

• Explosions Near Syrian Capital in Apparent Israeli Strikes
  by Associated Press, May 17 at 3:54 PM, https://www.washingtonpost.com/
  DAMASCUS, Syria — Several explosions were heard in the Syrian capital Damascus on Friday night as the country’s air defenses opened fire on “objects” coming from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, state media reported.
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  State news agency SANA quoted an unnamed military official as saying that Syrian air defenses discovered “hostile targets” coming from the direction of the Quenitra region on the edge of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The news agency said Syrian air defenses shot down several “objects.”
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  The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported three explosions southwest of Damascus. It added that it was not immediately clear if the explosions were caused by Israeli airstrikes or surface-to-surface missiles.
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  The Observatory’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, told The Associated Press that the strikes targeted the area of Kiswa, which is home to positions and storage sites for Iranian and Lebanon’s Hezbollah forces allied with Syria’s government.
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• Syria says Israel carried out strike, claims to intercept missiles
  by https://www.timesofisrael.com/
  State news agency says air defenses shot down ‘hostile targets’ coming from the Golan; sounds of explosions reported near Damascus; Israel mum.
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  Syrian state media on Friday evening said that Israel launched a strike against targets near Damascus and claimed the country’s air defenses downed a number of missiles. “Aerial defenses detected hostile targets coming from the direction of Quneitra and dealt with them,” the official SANA news agency quoted a military source saying, referring to a Syrian town in the Golan Heights bordering Israel.
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