The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned the Israeli airstrike that took place in a building in Damascus, killing seven people.
The ministry said women and children were among those killed in an attack on Tuesday evening in the Mezzeh neighborhood, which houses the Iranian embassy and other diplomatic facilities. The Israeli military has not commented.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 13, including nine civilians and two members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which is a major ally of Iran and the Syrian government.
The UK-based monitoring group said the strike was aimed at an apartment complex often held by leaders of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance”.
The Syrian news agency, Sana, quoted a military source as saying that the building was hit by three missiles fired by Israeli planes from the Golan Heights.
Pictures from the scene showed emergency crews assessing the extensive damage to apartments on the first, second and third floors.
“I was on my way home when the explosion occurred and the electricity connection was cut so I could no longer contact my family,” said electrician Adel Habib, 61, who lives in the building, told AFP news agency.
“This was the longest five minutes of my life until I heard the voices of my wife, children and grandchildren.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights identified the civilians killed as a Yemeni doctor, his wife and their three children, and a woman and her child, a female doctor and a male doctor.
The Iranian embassy said no Iranian citizens were killed.
On Wednesday, one member of the Syrian security forces was killed in an Israeli strike near the southwestern city of Quneitra, according to Sana.
Last week, another Israeli strike in Mezzeh reportedly killed the son-in-law of late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Hassan Jaafar Qassir.
Israel has previously admitted to carrying out hundreds of strikes in recent years against targets in Syria it says are linked to Iran and allied armed groups such as Hezbollah.
Israeli strikes in Syria have reportedly become more frequent since the war in Gaza began last October, in response to attacks on northern Israel by Hezbollah and other groups in Lebanon and Syria.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Israeli air and missile strikes have targeted Syrian territory 104 times since January, killing at least 296 people and leading to the injury or destruction of 190 targets, including weapons depots, vehicles and Iran- backed. military headquarters.
Three weeks ago, Israel again attacked Hezbollah in Lebanon, launching an intensive and extensive air campaign targeting the group’s infrastructure and weapons, and attacking the south of the country.
Source link
