Suspected Israeli airstrike targets Damascus

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A suspected Israeli airstrike on Friday hit a neighbourhood in the Syrian capital Damascus. No casualties have been reported, according to a war monitor. 

The strike targeted a residential complex in the Mazzeh neighbourhood where key government offices and diplomatic missions are located, reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). 

The neighbourhood is often hit by aerial attacks blamed on Israel.

The Observatory said that “firetrucks and ambulances headed to the targeted site amid reports about human casualties, where regime forces and security services completely cordoned off the targeted site.”

Israel is blamed for hundreds of airstrikes on regime-controlled areas in Syria through its more than a decade-long civil war, often targeting pro-Iran militias, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah group that supports the Syrian army. 

The strikes have increased since October 7 of last year, when Palestinian Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, which retaliated by invading Gaza. The conflict has now spread to Lebanon.

Israel rarely confirms strikes attributed to it in Syria, but has warned repeatedly that it will not tolerate its arch-rival Iran gaining a foothold in the country.