April 22 (UPI) -- Syria and Israel exchanged missile fire early Thursday, military officials said.
Syria said it fired a missile that landed in the Negev Desert in response to an Israeli air force bombing near the capital city of Damascus.
The Israel Defense Forces activated its air defense systems to intercept the missile, but the attempt failed.
"Due to a surface to air missile entering Israeli territory, air defense systems were activated," the IDF said.
The military was investigating why the defense systems failed to intercept the missile.
The IDF tweeted that it responded to the surface-to-air missile by firing its own barrage of missiles, including one that struck the battery the Syrian missile was launched from.
Syria's state news agency reported that four soldiers were injured and some damage was caused by the attack.
It added that Syrian air defenses intercepted Israeli missiles that targeted the Damascus suburbs.
"Air defenses intercepted the rockets and downed most of them," the agency said.
