Israel accuses Iranian forces of rocket attack

Counterattack hits area near Damascus

JERUSALEM — Iranian forces based in Syria fired 20 rockets at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights early today, the Israeli military said, triggering a heavy Israeli reprisal and escalating already heightened tensions in what appeared to be the most serious violence in years.

The Israeli military said its Iron Dome rocket defense system intercepted some of the incoming projectiles, while others caused only minimal damage. There were no Israeli casualties.

Syria’s capital of Damascus shook with sounds of explosions just before dawn, and firing by Syrian air defenses over the city was heard throughout the night. An Israeli official said Israel was targeting Iranian positions inside Syria. Syria’s state news agency SANA quoted a Syrian military official as saying Israeli missiles hit air defense positions, radar stations and a weapons warehouse, but claiming most incoming rockets were intercepted.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted an unidentified security official as saying Israel’s attacks inside Syria were the most extensive since the two nations signed a disengagement agreement after the October war of 1973.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said earlier that Iran’s Al Quds force fired the rockets at several Israeli bases, though he would not say how Israel determined the Iranian involvement. The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Israeli-controlled Golan, which was captured from Syria in the 1967 war.

Israel “views this Iranian attack very severely,” Conricus told reporters. He said Israel had responded, but did not provide details. “This event is not over,” he said. Syria’s state media said Syrian air defenses intercepted “hostile Israeli missiles” early today that were fired over southwestern Damascus. Hours later, state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV broadcast a live feed of Syrian air defenses firing into the sky above the capital, and loud explosions and air defense firing were heard through the night.

ASSOCIATED PRESS Iranian lawmakers burn a paper U.S. flag and papers representing the nuclear deal as they chant slogans against the U.S. at the parliament in Tehran on Wednesday.

SOURCE: SANA Flames rise after an attack in Kisweh, south of Damascus on Wednesday, an area known to have numerous Syrian military bases.