ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - “Violent” blasts were heard in the Syrian capital Damascus on Friday but no casualties were reported, according to a war monitor. The Syrian army said it shot down two drones in the city.
“Violent explosions were heard in the capital Damascus and the surrounding areas as a result of new attacks on Syrian territory,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), adding that the blasts hit the surroundings of Mezzeh “military airport” in western Damascus “which hosts positions of Iranian-backed militias and Lebanese Hezbollah.”
The UK-based watchdog added that no casualties were reported in the explosions.
The Syrian army claimed that its defense forces “shot down two drones that violated the Syrian airspace from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan,” reported the state-owned SANA.
No party has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Four Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members, including two senior military advisors to Syria, were killed when a residential building in Mezzeh was hit by a suspected Israeli airstrike on January 20.
The IRGC confirmed the deaths of four advisors, adding that many Syrian soldiers were killed as well. It blamed Israel for the attack.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on regime-controlled areas of Syria throughout its 12-year civil war, often claiming to strike pro-Iran militias such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah group that supports the Syrian army.
While it rarely comments on strikes attributed to it in Syria, Israel has repeatedly warned that it would not tolerate its arch-rival Iran gaining a foothold there.
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