At least five killed in Israeli missile strike on Damascus, says Syria
At least five people have been killed in an Israeli missile strike on Damascus, Syria’s military has said.
Loud explosions were heard over the Syrian capital and state media company SANA reported that air defences were “confronting hostile targets in the sky” around the city.
Citing a military source, SANA reported that five people had been killed and 15 civilians were wounded following the “destruction of a number of residential buildings”.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, put the death toll at 15.
The strikes were the first since the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria on 6 February.
There was no immediate statement from Israel on the attack.
For almost a decade, Israel has been carrying out airstrikes against suspected Iranian-sponsored weapons transfers
and personnel deployments in Syria.
Iran has expanded its military presence in Syria in recent years and has a foothold in most state-controlled areas, with thousands of members of militias and local paramilitary groups under its command, Western intelligence sources say.
In recent months, Israel has intensified strikes on Syrian airports and air bases to disrupt Iran’s increasing use of aerial supply lines to deliver arms to allies in Syria and Lebanon, including Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah.
