ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A series of Israeli airstrikes targeted the Syrian capital of Damascus on Sunday, causing material damage but no casualties, Syrian state media (SANA) reported.
“At approximately 23:05 pm today, the Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting some positions in the vicinity of Damascus,” SANA said, citing a military source.
“Our air defenses responded to the aggression’s missiles and shot down some of them while the losses were limited to material damage,” the source added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported that the strikes near Sayeda Zainab district and Damascus airport injured eight, including three civilians and five “military combatants.”
SOHR said that Hezbollah forces and pro-Iran militias are present in the areas.
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 which 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 to gain a foothold there.
There have been 63 Israeli strikes on Syrian territory since the beginning of the year, killing 110 soldiers and militiamen and wounding 117 others, according to SOHR. The strikes have resulted in the destruction of around 127 targets.
