Syria says it has shot down Israeli missiles near capital

State news agency SANA said Syria shot down most of the missiles, which were launched from the area southeast of neighbouring Lebanon and targeted areas near Damascus. It provided no further details. 

The Israeli military, which rarely speaks of its military operations in the war-ravaged country, did not acknowledge that they carried out any airstrikes. 

It said only that a surface-to-air missile launched from Syrian territory towards Israeli air space exploded over the Mediterranean Sea on Friday, and that residents in central Israel had located several missile fragments on the ground. 

Israel has launched hundreds of strikes against Iran-linked military targets in Syria over the years but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations. 

Israel views Iranian entrenchment on its northern frontier as a red line, and it has repeatedly struck what it says are Iran-linked facilities and weapons convoys destined for Lebanese Hezbollah. The Iran-backed militant group is fighting alongside Syrian government forces in the country's long-running civil war.