15 people have been killed and many injured in an Israeli airstrike on Damascus, the capital of Syria.
Early Sunday morning, Syrian state media reported that Israeli airstrikes targeted a residential neighborhood in central Damascus.
Loud explosions were heard in the capital at around 12:30pm local time. the Associated Press news agency said, and state media reported that Syrian air defenses “were targeting enemy targets in the skies around Damascus.” Countering the attacks.’
Syria’s official news agency SANA, citing a military source, reported that 15 people were killed in the destruction of several residential buildings. while one soldier and 15 civilians were also injured.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, reported that 15 people, including a woman, were killed in attacks on buildings used by Iranian militias and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and an Iranian school in rural areas of Damascus. .
There was no immediate statement from Israel on the attack.
Israeli forces often target areas around Damascus in airstrikes. These were the first attacks on Saturday night after a devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria on February 6.
Israel’s last attack on Damascus was on January 2 last month, when the Syrian army said Israeli forces fired missiles at the capital’s international airport, killing two soldiers and wounding two others.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside Syrian government-controlled areas in recent years, but Israeli officials rarely officially acknowledge these actions.
However, Israel admits it targets the bases of militant groups allied with Iran, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
The attacks come amid a wider proxy war between Israel and Iran.
The attacks on the airports in Damascus and Aleppo were carried out due to fears that they were being used to bring Iranian weapons into Syria.