An Israeli strike on Damascus on Sunday morning has left at least 5 people dead and destroyed a building in a neighbourhood in central Damascus, home to much of Syria’s security apparatus, according to a war monitor.
Israeli strike on Damascus: Various death tolls
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported that the strike, which targeted Iranian and Hezbollah targets close to an Iranian cultural centre, had killed 15 people including civilians. “Israeli missiles targeted sites including Iranian militias and the Lebanese Hezbollah,” they added. Syria’s state media, SANA, said that four civilians and one soldier were killed, and another 15 civilians were wounded in the strike on the Kafar Sousah neighbourhood. It also said several of those wounded were listed in critical condition.
The Israeli Defence Forces did not make any comment, in line with its policy of not generally commenting on air raids in the country.
During more than a decade of war in Syria, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes against its neighbour, primarily targeting positions of the country’s army, Iranian forces, and Hezbollah. But it rarely hits residential areas of the capital. In January, four soldiers were killed in an Israeli missile strike on Damascus International Airport.
Video footage posted by state media illustrated that a 10-story building was badly damaged in the attack, crushing the structure of its lower floors.
Large chunks of the building had been thrown into the street below, which was strewn with cladding and metal fittings. The images also showed that several of the building’s windows had been blown out.
