Russia says Syria’s air defense units have managed to destroy eight missiles fired by the Israeli army from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights.
Faraan: Oleg Zhuravlev, deputy chief of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Parties in Syria, said that four Israeli Air Force F-16 fighter jets carried out a strike with guided missiles against targets outside the al-Kiswah district of Syria’s Rif Dimashq province early on Wednesday.
A few minutes later, he added, the Israeli military launched ten ground-to-ground missiles from Golan targeting the Syrian army’s air defense units. Zhuravlev also said that eight Israeli missiles were destroyed with the Russian-made air defense systems belonging to the Syrian armed forces.
“One Syrian soldier was killed and five were wounded,” he noted. “Syrian military and civilian infrastructure suffered material damage.” Earlier on Wednesday, Syria’s Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the deadly Israeli attacks on the Syrian territories. It said in a statement that international silence and the American support have emboldened the Tel Aviv regime to keep its aerial assaults against Syria.
“The Syrian government is warning the rulers of the Israeli entity against the continuation of the … blatant and reckless Israeli violations and criminal attacks, and the dangers they pose to the stability of the region and international peace and security,” the statement read. Israel mostly keeps quiet about the attacks on Syrian territories which many view as knee-jerk reaction to the Syrian government’s increasing success in its counter-terrorism battle.
In a separate development, Syrian writer and journalist Eid al-Darwish estimated that the United States is stealing an average of 3 million barrels of oil per month from his country. In an interview with al-Maloumah news agency, he added that the US is using oil tankers to transfer Syrian crude to Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region at a lower price, he added.
Washington, Darwish said, is also smuggling Syrian wheat and agricultural products to the Iraqi Kurdistan through official crossings. The stealing of Syrian oil by the US is meant to achieve specific goals, including depriving the Syrian people of their country’s resources, he asserted. This happens at a time, when Washington has imposed a stifling economic blockade to force the Syrian government to surrender and negotiate with the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed alliance of mainly Kurdish forces fighting against Damascus.
American troops and their allied militants control several oil wells in northern Syria, where they have deployed truckloads of weapons as well as military and logistical equipment. Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Western countries and their regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups that are wreaking havoc in the Arab country.
Syria, which has not authorized the presence of the US military in its territory, says Washington is “plundering” the country’s oil. The presence of US forces in northeastern Syria has particularly irked local residents who have on several occasions stopped American military convoys.
