Israel Hits 'Nearly All' Iranian Targets in Syria

Israel's defense minister says the military has struck "nearly all" of the Iranian infrastructure sites in Syria. Avigdor Lieberman says Israel responded fiercely to an unprecedented rocket attack by Iranian forces in Syria against Israel. He says no one was harmed in Israel and all the rockets were either intercepted or fell short. Lieberman told the Herzliya Conference, an annual security gathering north of Tel Aviv, that "if it rains on us it will be a flood on them." Israel attacked dozens of Iranian targets overnight in response to the rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights. It was the most serious military confrontation between Israel and Iran to date and Israel's biggest strike in Syria since the 1973 war.

Israel says the targets included weapons storage facilities, logistics centers, intelligence sites, and logistic sites used by elite Iranian forces in Syria, the AP reports. It also says it destroyed several Syrian air-defense systems after coming under heavy fire. It says none of its warplanes was hit. The blistering Israeli assault was by far the most intensive Israeli action in neighboring Syria since the civil war broke out there in 2011. Israel has tried to stay on the sidelines but has acknowledged over 100 airstrikes over the past seven years. Russia says Israel fired 60 air-to-surface and 10 surface-to-surface missiles, but more than half of them were shot down, the BBC reports.

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