BEIRUT/MOSCOW/DAMASCUS: An apparent Israeli missile attack on a Syrian military installation near Damascus International Airport shook the capital early on Thursday morning and raised tensions between the two hostile neighbours.

After nightfall, the Israeli military deployed its Patriot missile defence system to intercept a projectile incoming from Syria above the Golan Heights. The military did not elaborate on what it described as a “target” on Thursday night but Israeli media said a drone that had infiltrated from Syria was knocked out.

The target of the pre-dawn explosions near Damascus was not immediately known, but the blast could be felt at least 15 kilometres away. The Syrian military said the attack was carried out by Israel and aimed to “raise the morale of terrorist groups” the government maintains are waging war against President Bashar Assad’s forces.

The Syrian military said it would continue its “war on terror” government parlance for the battle against all groups trying to oust Assad.

Lately, Israel has appeared to be striking at military convoys and installations in Syria at a quickening pace, maintaining it has the right to prevent authorities in Damascus from transferring weapons across the border to the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group.Israel is widely believed to have carried out several air strikes in recent years on advanced weapons systems in Syria including Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles and Iranian-made missiles as well as Hezbollah positions. It rarely comments on such operations.

Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said Israel had fired several missiles from inside the Occupied Golan Heights, 60 kilometres south of Damascus, striking a military installation southwest of the airport that serves both military and civilian flights. It reported several explosions and material damage but no casualties. It was not clear how Israel was identified as the culprit.

“The buildings shook from the force of the blast,” said a media activist who goes by Salam al-Ghoutawi, of the Ghouta Media Centre, in the city’s opposition-held northeastern suburbs, about 15 kilometers from the airport. He said he heard the roar of jets in the distance at the time.

A string of explosions could be seen silhouetted against the night sky in a video published by the centre. Debris is seen flying out as the light of the explosions illuminated a sizeable blast cloud that took shape nearby. A pro-government site Damascus Now said the explosion was near the city’s Seventh Bridge, which leads to the airport road.

Israeli strikes on Syria are unacceptable: Russia

The Kremlin strongly criticised Israeli air strikes on targets inside Syria on Thursday, saying Israel and other countries should avoid any action that heightened tension in the region.

“We consider that all countries should avoid any actions that lead to higher tensions in such a troubled region and call for Syrian sovereignty to be respected,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, when asked about the attack.

Russia and Israel were in constant contact about the situation in Syria through various channels, said Peskov.Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, separately told a news briefing on Thursday that Moscow thought air strikes like Israel’s risked playing into the hands of militant groups and of complicating the search for a political solution in Syria.

“Moscow condemns acts of aggression against Syria and considers that they are unacceptable and contradict the principles and norms of international law,” said Zakharova.

The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Israel’s Ambassador to Moscow last month to protest about a different Israeli military strike in Syria, near the city of Palmyra.

Syria to buy latest Russian anti-missile system: Assad

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Damascus is negotiating with regime ally Moscow to buy the latest Russian anti-missile system to repel Israeli and American attacks.

“It’s natural that we should have such systems,” he said, quoted by Syria’s official SANA agency on Thursday, the same day as Damascus accused Israel of firing several missiles at a military position near its international airport.

“Israel has been committing aggressions on the Arab states surrounding it since its creation in 1948,” Assad said in the interview with Venezuelan channel Telesur.

“It is natural for us to negotiate with the Russians now with a view to strengthening (our) systems, whether to face any Israeli threats from the air or the threats of American missiles.” “That has become a real possibility after the recent American aggression on Al-Shayrat air base in Syria,” he added.

The US military fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at the base overnight on April 6-7 following a suspected chemical attack on a rebel-held town in Idlib province that left 87 dead, including many children.

Washington said the regime base was the launchpad for the attack, a charge Damascus denies.

Russia’s military said a day after the attack that Syria’s air defences would be boosted.

“To protect Syria’s most sensitive infrastructure, a complex of measures will be implemented in the near future to strengthen and improve the effectiveness of the Syrian armed forces’ air defence system,” said spokesman Igor Konashenkov For its part, Israel has carried out multiple air strikes in Syria since the country’s civil war erupted in 2011, most of which it has said targeted arms convoys or warehouses of its Lebanese arch-foe Hezbollah, a key supporter of Assad’s regime.

Assad also said that no country which had aided the Syrian opposition should be allowed to take part in Syria’s post-war reconstruction.

“All the states which stood against the Syrian people and took part in the destruction and sabotage will never take part in rebuilding Syria. That is final,” he said.

International organisations estimate that reconstructing Syria, devastated by a six-year war that has left over 320,000 dead, will cost upwards of $300 billion.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2017