Syrian air defences fire on Israeli warplanes

Syrian air defences have fired on Israeli warplanes amid conflicting reports that several targets in the Arab state were bombed…

Syrian air defences have fired on Israeli warplanes amid conflicting reports that several targets in the Arab state were bombed.

Syria official news agency, Sana, said today the country's defences fired at the incoming planes, which crossed into Syria after midnight local time.

"The Syrian Arab Republic warns the government of the Israeli enemy and reserves the right to respond according to what it sees fit," the agency said.

But Israeli army officials denied the military had carried out air strikes.

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Israel has long warned Syria to stop supporting militant Palestinian groups and the Lebanese movement Hizbullah.

Witnesses said they heard the sound of five planes or more above Tal al-Abiad area on Syria's border with Turkey, around 160km north of the Syrian city of Rakka. They said the planes then headed south.

Syria last said it fired at Israeli warplanes in June 2006, when Israeli aircraft buzzed the summer residence of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Israeli officials said at the time, the flyover was a message to cease support for Hamas after the Palestinian militant group abducted an Israeli soldier in a raid into Israel from the Gaza Strip.