Israeli Missiles Hit near Airbase Outside Damascus

Several Israeli missiles struck near the Mazzeh airbase outside Damascus overnight without causing any casualties, Syrian state media reported on Wednesday. 

"At 3:00 am (0100 GMT), the Israeli enemy fired several surface-to-surface missiles from inside occupied territory," the state news agency SANA said, citing a military source. 

SANA said the missiles were fired from a position "west of Tal Abu Nada", a mountain in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights known as Mount Avital in Israel. 

It said they caused a fire but no casualties.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, earlier reported the sounds of explosions in the area of the airbase and said fires had erupted inside the facility afterwards.

It did not confirm the source of the explosions.

The Mazzeh airbase, less than eight kilometers (five miles) southwest of Damascus, hosts the headquarters of the feared air force intelligence service and its notorious prison. 

Israel's military declined comment. 

It was the second time in eight days that Israel, which is technically still at war with Syria, had targeted positions outside Damascus.

Israel has sought to limit its involvement in the five-year conflict in Syria, but has carried out sporadic sorties against Hizbullah inside Syria.

The Lebanese group, which fought a devastating war with Israel in 2006, had sent thousands of its men to fight alongside Syrian government troops.

Speaking to EU ambassadors on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman spoke vaguely about his country's actions in Syria. 

"We are working first and foremost to ensure the security of our citizens and defend our sovereignty and we are trying to prevent the smuggling of advanced weapons, military equipment and weapons of mass destruction from Syria to Hizbullah," he said, according to a statement from his office.

Israel and Russia have held a series of talks in recent months to coordinate their actions in Syria, where Moscow has been conducting an air campaign in support of President Bashar Assad since 2015.

Israel seized 1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles) of the Golan from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the international community.