Israeli airborne forces raid site near Syria capital

Israeli forces conducted an airborne raid on a site near the Syrian capital after bombing it several times, Syrian state media reported.

Israel has not confirmed the raid, but Defense Minister Israel Katz said its forces operate "in all combat zones" to ensure the country's security.

If verified, it would be the deepest such operation Israel has carried out inside Syria since an Islamist alliance seized power in Damascus in December.

Israeli jets struck the site near Kisweh, outside Damascus on Tuesday, killing six Syrian soldiers according to the foreign ministry, and bombed it again on Wednesday according to state television.

Quoting a government source, state news agency SANA said soldiers had found "surveillance and eavesdropping devices" in the area before it was hit by Israeli strikes on Tuesday.

A defense ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the target was a former Syrian military base in Tal Maneh, near Kisweh.

Following the second attack on Wednesday, SANA said Israeli troops were flown into the area to carry out a raid, "the details of which are not yet known, amid continued intensive reconnaissance flights".

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the site had weapons used by Lebanese Hezbollah, one of ousted president Bashar al-Assad's main allies.

On Thursday in a post on X, the Israeli defense minister said: "Our forces are operating in all combat zones day and night for the security of Israel". He did not elaborate.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military declined to comment.

The Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor that relies on a network of sources on the ground, said the raid was the first of its kind since Assad's overthrow in December.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since then, and occupied much of a U.N.-patrolled demilitarized zone on the Syrian-held side of the armistice line between the two countries.

It has also opened talks with the interim authorities in Damascus.