Soldier killed in Israeli attack on Damascus – Newspaper

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 Damascus neighborhood of Kafr Sousa,” it said. SANA said air defense systems intercepted and shot down several rockets “despite their intensity.”

The news agency released a photo showing a fire in a crater that appears to have been created by the explosion. A journalist who visited the scene said the impact caused 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.

Published in Dawn, July 15, 2024