Ammon News - JERUSALEM (AFP) –– Missiles that Russia reported were launched in the Mediterranean Sea on Tuesday were part of a joint American-Israeli military exercise, Israel's media said.
The reports said Ankor-type missiles was directed from bases in the Mediterranean and in the centre of Israel.
Moscow's defence ministry, as cited by Russian news agencies, said its early warning system had detected the launch of two ballistic missiles from the central part of the Mediterranean fired towards the Sea's eastern coastline on Tuesday morning.
Israel's army said it was "not familiar" with any missiles being fired in the Mediterranean.
Russia on Tuesday announced its early warning system had detected the launch of two ballistic missiles from the central part of the Mediterranean Sea fired towards the Sea's eastern coastline.
The launches took place at 10:16 am Moscow time (0616 GMT) and were detected by the early warning system in Armavir in southern Russia, the defence ministry said in a statement quoted by Russian news agencies.
It said Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had already reported to President Vladimir Putin about the event, which comes amid growing expectations of Western military action in Syria.
"The launch was detected by the early warning radar in Armavir," the Interfax news agency quoted the defence ministry as saying.
"The trajectory of the targets in question was from the central part of the Mediterranean Sea towards the eastern part of the Mediterranean coastline," it added.
"Sergei Shoigu has already reported to Vladimir Putin –– the commander-in-chief of the Russian armed forces –– about the discovery of the launch of the ballistic targets," it said.
But Damascus said that Syria's early warning radar system did not detect any missiles landing on Syrian territory, according to a Syrian security source quoted by Lebanon's Al Manar television on Tuesday.
A Syrian source told RIA Novosti that the missiles detected by Russia fell into the Mediterranean.
Israel's army said it was "not familiar" with any missiles being launched in the Mediterranean Sea, as reported by Russia's defence ministry.
"We are not familiar with launches of missiles in the Mediterranean," an army spokeswoman told AFP. (Agencies)