Damascus, Feb. 10 (SANA) Syria’s Interior Ministry said on Tuesday that it had foiled a planned attack in the Mezzeh area of Damascus and arrested the remaining members of a terrorist cell that was preparing assaults in populated areas of the capital.
In a statement posted on its Telegram channel, the ministry said the operation was carried out by Interior Ministry units in coordination with the General Intelligence Directorate, as part of ongoing security operations in the Damascus countryside.
The ministry said the cell was linked to earlier attacks that targeted the Mezzeh area and a nearby military airport. Security forces arrested the cell’s members as they were attempting to set up Grad-type rocket launchers to attack populated areas, the statement added.
The ministry said the operation led to the seizure of rocket launch platforms before they could be used. Preliminary investigations indicated that the suspects had been planning additional attacks and were in contact with external groups.
All seized equipment was confiscated, and those arrested were referred to judicial authorities for further investigation, according to the statement.
Earlier, on February 1, the ministry announced the arrest of members of a terrorist cell involved in previous attacks targeting the Mezzeh area of Damascus and its military airport. The arrests followed weeks of surveillance and tracking of rocket launch sites in the Daraya and Kafr Souseh areas of Damascus.
Initial investigations showed that the cell’s members had links to external parties, and that the rockets, launch platforms and drones used in the attacks originated from Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, the ministry said
