DAMASCUS, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Syria's Foreign Ministry said Monday that the Israeli strikes against Syria aim to prolong the Syrian crisis, according to the state news agency SANA.
The ministry referred to the latest attack which targeted military sites in the Syrian capital Damascus and the central province of Homs overnight Sunday.
The ministry urged the UN Security Council to shoulder its responsibility to deter the repetitive Israeli strikes.
At least four civilians, including an infant, were killed and 21 others wounded in the series of strikes on Sunday night.
The ministry said that Israel is practicing "state terrorism."
It noted that the aggressive policies of Israel couldn't have taken place without the U.S. support and the impunity the U.S. administration guarantees to Israel in the UN Security Council.
At midnight, heavy explosions were heard in Damascus and its western and southwestern countryside of Damascus, as well as the vicinity of the Mazzeh air base and the Jumraya area near the Scientific Research Center.
The official media outlets cited a military statement as saying that Israeli warplanes fired their missiles from inside the Lebanese airspace and the occupied Golan Heights.
It said the air defenses managed to intercept a number of missiles before they landed, particularly in the second wave of attacks with targeted areas in the southern countryside of Damascus near Quneitra province in southern Syria.
Similar strikes were reported in the southern countryside of Homs Province, said the report, adding that the air defenses managed to intercept a number of missiles.
The official TV said that some civilian properties, such as homes in the suburbs of Damascus, suffered some damage.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 10 Syrian sites were targeted by the Israeli warplanes and warships around Damascus and in Homs.
The Britain-based watchdog group said among the targeted sites are positions of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah.
The Syrian government has repeatedly accused Israel of "supporting terror groups in Syria," and said that its repeated strikes are "nothing but a way to lift the rebels' morale."
Meanwhile, Israel has conducted hundreds of airstrikes in Syria throughout the eight-year conflict, most of which against what it claims to be sites of Iranian-backed militia groups, such as the Hezbollah.
Israel says it is determined to prevent Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, where Tehran backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
