JERUSALEM

Israeli warplanes and helicopters struck targets belonging to forces loyal to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime Monday in the northern part of the capital Damascus. 

Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee announced on social media that the move was in response to an attempt yesterday to attack the occupied Golan Heights.

Adraee said command centers of the regime forces, military bases and observation and intelligence posts were struck.

Underlining that Israel will continue to respond to attacks against it, he said it held the Assad regime responsible for such attacks against Israel from Syrian territory.

Syria's official SANA news agency claimed the country’s air defense systems responded to the attacks on rural areas in southwestern Damascus.

Israel has occupied most of the Syrian Golan Heights since the 1967 Middle East War.

Since the beginning of the Syrian crisis in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes against targets in Syria, including on Assad regime military sites and Iranian-backed groups.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to UN officials.