BEIRUT – Israel attacked Syrian territory three times early on Tuesday withjets and ground-to-ground missiles, Syria’s army said in a statementcarried by state television.

The army said Israeli jets fired missiles at the al-Qutaifa area nearDamascus from inside Lebanese airspace at 2:40 a.m. (0040 GMT), and thatSyrian air defenses hit one of the planes.

Israel then fired ground-to-ground rockets from the Israeli-occupied GolanHeights, but the Syrian defenses brought the missiles down, the Syrian armysaid.

It said Israeli jets fired a final barrage of four rockets from insideIsrael, and that the Syrian air defenses brought down one, but that theothers caused material damage.

An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to respond to the Syrianstatement. Although the Israeli air force chief last August disclosed thathis corps had struck in Syria around 100 times, Israel’s policy isgenerally not to confirm or deny such operations.

Israel has pledged to prevent Syrian territory being used for Iran to setup bases or transfer high-quality weaponry to Lebanon’s Hezbollah group,which has been helping Damascus beat back a six-year-old rebellion.

In its statement, the Syrian army repeated previous warnings of seriousrepercussions for the strikes and repeated its past accusation that Israelwas using attacks to support militant groups in Syria.