Israeli airstrikes kill 5 in Damascus, Syrian state media says

Damascus — Israeli airstrikes focused a residential neighborhood within the Syrian capital of Damascus early Sunday, killing at the least 5 folks and wounding 15, Syrian state information reported.

Loud explosions have been heard over a central space of the capital round 12:30 a.m. native time, and SANA reported that Syrian air defenses have been “confronting hostile targets within the sky round Damascus.”

Syrian state media company SANA, citing a army supply, reported that 5 folks had been killed, amongst them a soldier, and 15 civilians wounded, together with “destruction of a variety of residential buildings.” The information company additionally reported that the strikes had broken buildings linked to a medieval citadel in central Damascus and an utilized arts institute housed there.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.Ok.-based battle monitor, reported that 15 folks, together with a girl, have been killed in strikes focusing on websites linked with Iranian militias and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. They happened within the Damascus countryside and on an Iranian faculty within the neighborhood of Kafr Sousa within the capital, it mentioned.

Samer Abdo, an engineer residing in an condominium constructing that was struck in Kafr Sousa on an upscale residential avenue, was selecting by shattered glass and damaged wooden in his condominium Sunday morning. Abdo advised The Related Press that his household had woken up in terror to the constructing shaking.

“We thought at first that it was an earthquake just like the one which occurred two weeks in the past,” he mentioned.

Mohamad Dulo, one other resident of the neighborhood, mentioned, “All of the home windows fell into the road, and folks ran right down to the streets as nicely.”

Dulo mentioned he didn’t perceive why the world was focused. “It is a residential space,” he mentioned. “There may be nothing (army) right here.”

Director Normal of Antiquities and Museums Mohamad Awad advised the AP that the broken buildings across the Damascus Citadel have been arts and heritage institutes, in addition to the places of work for managing the citadel.

“It is surely that it’ll value loads to rebuild or restore among the buildings that have been destroyed within the assault,” Awad mentioned, including that the strike destroyed “uncommon and costly” tools and equipment that has been exhausting to acquire as a result of sanctions and the nation’s financial disaster.

There was no instant assertion from Israel on the assault. A spokesperson for the Israeli army declined to remark.

Whereas he didn’t immediately point out the strikes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu advised a gathering of his Cupboard on Sunday that Israel would proceed to defend itself from what it sees as Iran’s aggression.

“Iran’s assaults is not going to discourage us. We is not going to enable Iran to amass nuclear weapons and we is not going to enable it to entrench itself alongside our northern borders. We’re doing every thing and we are going to do every thing to guard our residents and we reply with depth to the assaults in opposition to us,” he mentioned.

An official with an Iran-backed group denied media reviews that the strike on Kafr Sousa focused Iranian or Palestinian officers.

The strike hit a parking storage beneath a constructing and killed 10 civilians and troops all of them Syrians, he mentioned. He denied that there had been any Iranians or Hezbollah members killed.

The official spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of he was not licensed to talk to the media.

Israeli airstrikes ceaselessly goal websites within the neighborhood of Damascus, however it’s uncommon for them to focus on residential areas within the metropolis. The Saturday night time strikes have been the primary since a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria on Feb. 6.

Syria’s international ministry condemned the assault, coming “at a time when Syria was therapeutic its wounds, burying its martyrs, and receiving condolences, sympathy, and worldwide humanitarian assist within the face of the devastating earthquake.” It known as on the United Nations Safety Council to sentence it.

Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim information company Sunday mentioned no Iranian nationals have been harmed in Israel’s strike on Damascus. It mentioned one of many rockets hit the identical place the place former Hezbollah commander Imad Moghnieh was killed in 2008.

The final reported assault on Damascus was on Jan. 2, when the Syrian military reported that Israel’s army fired missiles towards the worldwide airport of Syria’s capital early Monday, placing it out of service and killing two troopers and wounding two others.

Israel has carried out lots of of strikes on targets inside government-controlled components of Syria lately, however hardly ever acknowledges or discusses the operations.

Israel has acknowledged, nevertheless, that it targets bases of Iran-allied militant teams, corresponding to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has despatched hundreds of fighters to assist Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.

The Israeli strikes come amid a wider shadow battle between Israel and Iran. The assaults on airports in Damascus and Aleppo have been over fears they have been getting used to funnel Iranian weaponry into the nation.