Damascus alleges second Israeli air strike this week

Syria claims its air defenses repulsed an alleged Israeli attack in the Nabi Habil area near Damascus, killing a Syrian soldier and injuring three other others, as well as causing material damage. According to the London-based Syrian opposition, the purported Israeli attack also struck Hizballah positions near Zabadani, a town in the southwest that is near the Lebanese border. On Dec. 25, Israel was said to have attacked a pro-Iranian site in the western Hama province.

DEBKAfile: Hizballah is known to have established strategic positions in western Syria close to the Lebanese border. The pro-Iranian Lebanese group is believed to have transferred a part of its Iran-supplied missile arsenal to those compounds, which are therefore targets for reported Israeli strikes. Earlier this week, Hizballah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah boasted that his arsenal of precise missiles had doubled in the past year and could reach any part of Israel.