Video appears to confirm Israeli missile being intercepted over Damascus

Success or failure of Israeli air strikes in Syria is often difficult to confirm

Syrian air defence missiles are seen in the sky over the capital Damascus, Syria in 10 May 2018. EPA

Syrian air defences thwarted a reported Israeli missile attack on suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus late on Tuesday, Syrian state television reported.

Syrian state TV frequently makes such statements after Israeli attacks. In the absence of independent verification, reports are often difficult to confirm.

In this instance however, smartphone footage filmed on Tuesday night appeared to show an explosive collision in the night sky, preceded by the fiery glow of a missile exhaust.

Blazing fragments could be seen falling to earth after the blast.

Footage of the incident captured on three camera phones was analysed by security intelligence analysis company Aurora Intel, who published preliminary analysis on Twitter.

This appeared to confirm that at least one Israeli missile was intercepted.

"At exactly 22.35pm today, the Israeli enemy carried out an aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan against some targets in the vicinity of Damascus. Our air defences intercepted the aggression's missiles and downed most of them. Losses were limited to materials," the Syrian defence ministry said on Twitter.

It gave no further details, such as which suburbs had come under attack.

They were the first attacks since February 28, when Israeli missiles hit the southern suburbs of Damascus.

Israel views Iranian entrenchment on its northern frontier as a red line, and it has repeatedly struck Iran-linked facilities and weapons convoys destined for Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said on Tuesday that Israel does not comment on foreign reports.

Israel repeatedly said it aims to prevent Iran, which backs the Syrian regime, from gaining a foot-hold in Syria.

The war in Syria is in its 11th year. The latest UN figures, which date back to 2016, place the death toll at 400,000. The war drove millions of refugees into Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon – and internally displaced millions more.

President Bashar Al Assad and his wife, who last week contracted coronavirus, ordered a third stimulus package to combat the effect that the war and the pandemic have inflicted on his country's economy, taking the Syrian pound at 4,000 to the dollar on the black market, compared with 700 a year ago. The official rate for the dollar is fixed at 1,256 Syrian pounds for $1.

The first shipment of Covid-19 vaccines arrived on March 1 from a friendly nation, which the Syrian government did not name. Russia previously said it would send batches of the Sputnik V vaccine to Syria.

Syrians living in the north-west of the country, the last opposition strong-hold, told The National they would refuse a Russian-made vaccine.

The World Health Organisation said Covid-19 cases exceed 16,500 and the death toll is 1,104, although the exact figures are difficult to ascertain because of the disparity in health authorities, or lack thereof, in the different parts of the country.