A view showing damage at the site of a rocket attack in the Kafr Sousa neighborhood of central Damascus, Syria, on February 19, 2023. , Photo Credit: Reuters
An Israeli airstrike targeted a residential neighborhood in the Syrian capital Damascus early Sunday, killing at least five people and wounding 15, Syrian state news reported.
Loud explosions were heard in the central area of the capital around 12:30 local time sana reported that Syrian air defenses were “engaging with hostile targets in the sky around Damascus.”
Syrian State Media Agency sanaFive people were killed, among them a soldier, and 15 civilians were injured, with “the destruction of several residential buildings”, citing a military source.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 15 people, including a woman, were killed in strikes targeting sites linked to Iranian militias and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. It took place in an Iranian school in the countryside of Damascus and in the neighborhood of Kafr Susa in the capital.
There was no immediate statement from Israel on the attack.
Israeli airstrikes often target areas around Damascus. Saturday night’s attack was the first since a devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Turkey and Syria on February 6.
The last reported attack on Damascus was on January 2, when the Syrian military reported that Israeli forces fired missiles toward the Syrian capital’s international airport early Monday, putting it out of service and killing two soldiers. died and two others were injured.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations.
However, Israel has acknowledged that it targets targets of Iran-allied militant groups such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.
The Israeli strikes come amid a widening shadow war between Israel and Iran. The attacks on airports in Damascus and Aleppo were carried out over fears that they were being used to ship Iranian weapons into the country.