New Israeli airstrike hits research center near Damascus, Syria says

Syria has said that the Israeli regime has launched a new strike on the country, targeting a research center in a suburb of the capital, Damascus.

The Syrian state television said the Jamraya research center, located northwest of the capital, was the target of the Israeli missile attack. There have been no immediate reports of casualties.

The Jamraya research center was also targeted by an Israeli airstrike in January.

The Sunday attack came shortly after Tel Aviv confirmed on Friday that its warplanes had hit a “game-changing” target in Syria.

“The new Israeli attack is an attempt to raise the morale of the terrorist groups which have been reeling from strikes by our noble army,” the Syrian state television said.

The Israeli attack “aims at loosening the noose around the terrorists in the eastern Ghouta” region, near Damascus, the state television added.

Tel Aviv has made no confirmation on the new Israeli strike. “We don’t respond to this kind of report,” an Israeli military spokeswoman said.

On Saturday, US President Barack Obama said the Israeli regime had the right to launch airstrikes on Syria.

“What I have said in the past and I continue to believe is that the Israelis justifiably have to guard against the transfer of advanced weaponry” to resistance movements like Hezbollah, Obama stated in an interview with the Spanish-language network Telemundo in San Jose, Costa Rica.

The turmoil in Syria began over two years ago, and many people, including large numbers of Syrian soldiers and security personnel, have been killed. The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad said in April that the situation in the country was improving as the army enjoys people’s support in the fight against terrorism.