The Syrian army has confirmed that Israeli jets crossed into Syria below radar level at dawn and carried out airstrikes against military targets.
It is unclear, however, what the exact nature of the target of Wednesday's air strikes was. Syrian state media said that the strikes targeted a military research centre near Damascus, while regional security sources told the Reuters and AP news agencies that the target was convoy of trucks allegedly carrying anti-aircraft missiles for Hezbollah in Lebanon. "Israeli fighter jets violated our airspace at dawn today and carried out a direct strike on a scientific research centre in charge of raising our level of resistance and self-defence," the army's general command said in a statement carried by state news agency SANA on Wednesday evening.
The strike came "after terrorist groups made several failed attempts in the past months to take control of the site," the statement added, using the term President Bashar al-Assad's government uses for rebel fighters. The jets entered Syrian airspace via Mount Hermon, or Jabal el-Sheikh in Arabic, the army said. "They... carried out an act of aggression, bombarding the site, causing large-scale material damage and destroying the building," state television quoted the military as saying. The army added that two site workers were killed in the strike, and five others wounded.