Early on Sunday, Israeli airstrikes hit a residential area in central Damascus, according to Syrian official media.
Around 12:30 a.m., loud explosions could be heard above the capital. Syrian air defenses were “confronting hostile targets in the sky around Damascus,” according to SANA, at local time.
In addition to “damage of several residential buildings,” the Syrian state media outlet SANA stated that five persons had been killed, including one soldier, and 15 civilians had been injured.
The Damascus countryside, a school in the Kafr Sousa area, and sites linked to Iranian militias and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah were the targets of strikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor.
Israel did not immediately respond to the incident with a statement. Sites close to Damascus are usually the target of Israeli bombings.
The attacks on Saturday night were the first since a devastating 7.8 earthquake on February 6 that struck Turkey and Syria.
The last known attack on Damascus was on January 2, when the Syrian army said that Israeli forces had launched missiles at the capital city’s international airport early on Monday, shutting it down and killing two troops and injuring two more.
Israel has attacked targets inside of Syria’s government-controlled territory hundreds of times in recent years, although it rarely admits or talks about the attacks.
Yet, Israel has confirmed that it strikes the facilities of militant organizations with ties to Iran, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has dispatched thousands of men to aid Syrian President Bashar Assad’s army.
The Israeli attacks occur amid a more significant covert conflict between Israel and Iran. The airports in Damascus and Aleppo were attacked for fear that they were being used to import Iranian weapons.
JOIN US ON WHAT'SAPP, TO GET INSTANT STATUS UPDATES AND BE IN THE KNOW.
CLICK HERE
