The IDF recovered fragments of a Syrian surface-to-air missile that landed in the Golan Heights following reports of Israeli airstrikes in southern Syria, The Times of Israel reported Friday.

According to the IDF the remains of the missile landed in an open field and were being taken for further analysis by the military.

The UK-based Syria Observatory for Human Rights charged that Israeli planes targeted military sites of significance to Syria and Iran on Thursday night “for an hour.”

The director of the observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman, said that Israeli planes struck at two targets in the Damascus region, including one believed to be an Iranian arms depot. Two Israeli missiles reportedly struck al-Kiswah at a location of a “weapons depots belonging to the Lebanese Hezbollah [terrorist group] as well as Iranian forces.” Another missile reportedly struck Harfa, which is near the border with Israel, and is a Syrian military base.

Rahman said, “It appears the Israelis had intelligence that weapons had arrived there recently.”

There were also reported blasts at the Damascus International Airport and at a town along the Damascus-Beirut highway, suggesting that Israel may have been tracking a recent arms shipment.

These are the first Israeli airstrikes since September, when Syrian anti-aircraft fire downed a Russian plane. Although the Israeli planes were no longer in the vicinity of the airstrikes, Russia blamed Israel for the lost aircraft.

Despite the tensions with Russia, tand he recent delivery of the S-300 advanced anti-aircraft missile batteries to the Syrian regime, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel would take whatever steps were “necessary” to protect its interests in Syria in the wake of the incident.

[Photo: MilitArtan / YouTube ]