An Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) airstrike destroyed targets near Damascus, Syria, on January 21, 2019, as revealed by a recently released video.

News of the attack was first published by various Syrian state-run media outlets and was followed by a video published by the IDF. In a statement, the IDF noted that the targets of the strike were Iranian and Syrian. The short video posted on social media showed a self-propelled surface-to-air missile system, which appeared to be a Russian-made Pantsir-S1 (NATO reporting name: SA-22 Greyhound). Four people were reported dead after the attack, but the exact scale of the damage to the Syrian Armed Forces remains unknown at the moment. The attack was not the first of its kind, as the IDF released similar imagery in May 2018, which the DFRLab geolocated and confirmed.

Using the limited data from the videos, the DFRLab geolocated the area of the attack and confirmed that it took place in the vicinity of Damascus airport.

Geolocating the Target Sites

The area around the Damascus airport is heavily defended by anti-air system batteries and is, by some estimates, one of the world’s most heavily defended areas from air attacks. The fortified area around the airport can be analyzed using satellite imagery, which clearly shows large ramparts full of anti-air systems.