Syrian state media report that a soldier was killed in an Israeli attack on Damascus

A Syrian soldier was killed and three others wounded in Israeli attacks on several positions in and around Damascus early Sunday, Syrian state media reported.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it had attacked a Syrian military command center as well as Syrian army and air defense targets and infrastructure in response to two drones launched from Syrian territory toward Israel.

The statement is a rare admission by the Israeli military in Syria. Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the military has carried out hundreds of strikes, mainly targeting army positions and Iranian-backed fighters.

“One soldier was killed and three others injured when the Israeli enemy launched an air strike after midnight,” Syrian state news agency SANA reported on Sunday.

The attack “was launched from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights,” which Israel captured in 1967, and targeted “several military positions in the southern region and a residential building in the Kafr Sousa neighborhood of Damascus,” it said.

SANA said air defense systems had intercepted and shot down numerous missiles “despite their intensity.”

The news agency published a photo showing a fire in a crater apparently created by the explosion.

An AFP journalist who visited the scene said the impact left a crater about 30 meters long and 10 meters wide.

The facade of an eight-story building was damaged, windows were shattered, and around 30 cars were left charred or damaged in the area surrounding the impact site.

The area was cordoned off by police while firefighters tried to extinguish the fire in the area.

– “Unforeseeable consequences” –

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one pro-government Syrian fighter was killed and six others injured in Israeli attacks on a building in Kafr Sousa and a military headquarters south of Damascus.

Local radio station Sham FM reported on “the explosion of an ammunition depot following an Israeli attack on a position near the capital.”

“The explosions were very strong and came one after the other,” a resident of the Mazzeh neighborhood east of Damascus told AFP, adding that “the strong smell of gunpowder” appeared afterwards.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army said that two “drones launched from Syrian territory … were successfully intercepted” on Saturday.

In response, the military said it had “attacked a Syrian military command center and infrastructure facilities overnight. In addition, terror targets used by the Syrian military’s air defense unit were hit.”

“The Syrian regime is responsible for all terrorist activities on its territory and will be held accountable,” the army added.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned the attacks in a statement carried by SANA and warned that Israeli attacks in Syria and other countries in the region could lead to a “dangerous escalation” with “dire, unpredictable consequences”.

Israeli attacks on Syria had intensified after the Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel sparked a war in the Gaza Strip, but they subsided on April 1 when an attack attributed to Israel hit the Iranian consulate building in Damascus.

Israel has repeatedly stated that it will not allow its arch-enemy Iran to expand its influence in Syria.

The attack came amid preparations for Syria’s parliamentary elections on Monday, which are expected to return power to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s ruling Baath Party.

mom/jos/lg/ami