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Air defenses shoot down majority of Israeli bombs fired at Damascus — Russian ministry

No damage or casualties occurred, the deputy chief of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Parties in Syria Vadim Kulit said

MOSCOW, December 2. /TASS/. Russian-made air defense systems shot down the majority of guided bombs, fired by Israeli warplanes towards facilities near Damascus, the deputy chief of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Parties in Syria (a division of the Russian defense ministry) said on Saturday.

"Between 01:33 on December 2 [Moscow time, 10:33 p.m. GMT, December 1] and 01:39 [Moscow time, 10:39 p.m. GMT], four F-16 tactical fighter jets of the Israeli air force fired guided bombs from the occupied Golan heights towards facilities on the outskirts of Damascus. On-duty air defense units of the Syrian armed forces shot down most of the bombs using Russian-made Pantsir-S and Buk-M2E air defense systems. No damage or casualties occurred," Rear Adm. Vadim Kulit said.

In a separate development, the Russian center registered three violations of the December 9, 2019 deconfliction protocols by the US-led international coalition. Also, the coalition’s aircraft violated Syrian airspace in the Al-Tanf zone three times over the past 24 hours. A total of 206 such violations were registered in November.

Besides, the official continued, seven attacks on Syrian government troops were registered in the Idlib de-escalation zone over the past 24 hours. They were coming from positions held by the Jabhat Al-Nusra and Islamic Party of Turkestan terrorist groups (both outlawed in Russia).

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