DAMASCUS: A Syrian soldier was killed on Sunday and three others wounded in Israeli strikes on several positions in and around Damascus, Syrian state media said.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, said it had targeted a Syrian military command center as well as targets and infrastructure belonging to the Syrian army and air defense in response to two drones launched toward Israel from Syrian territory.
The statement was a rare acknowledgment by the Israeli military of action in Syria, where it has launched hundreds of strikes since the country’s civil war erupted in 2011, mainly targeting army positions and fighters.
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The facade of an eight-story building was damaged, with its windows shattered, while around 30 cars were left charred or damaged around the impact site.
“A soldier was killed and three others injured following an aerial aggression launched by the Israeli enemy after midnight” on Sunday, Syria’s SANA news agency reported.
The strike “was launched from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights,” which Israel seized in 1967, and targeted “several military positions in the southern region and a residential building in the Kafr Sousa district of Damascus,” it added.
SANA said that aerial defense systems had intercepted and downed several missiles “despite their intensity.”
The news agency published a photo showing a fire in what appeared to be a crater caused by the blast.
A journalist visiting the scene said the strike caused a crater about 30 meters long and 10 meters wide.
The facade of an eight-story building was damaged, with its windows shattered, while around 30 cars were left charred or damaged around the impact site.
Police cordoned off the vicinity while firefighters attempted to extinguish the fire.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a Syrian pro-government fighter had been killed and six others wounded in Israeli strikes targeting a building in Kafr Sousa and a military headquarters south of Damascus.
Local radio station Sham FM had reported “the explosion of a munitions depot following an Israeli attack that targeted a position near the capital.”
“The blasts were very strong and came in succession,” a resident of the eastern Damascus neighborhood of Mazzeh told AFP, adding that this was followed by “the strong odor of gunpowder.”
The Israeli army meanwhile said that two drones launched “from Syrian territory ... were successfully intercepted” on Saturday.
In response, the military said it struck overnight “a Syrian military command center and infrastructure sites. Additionally, terror targets used by the Syrian military’s Aerial Defense Unit were struck.”
“The Syrian regime is responsible for all terror activities occurring within its territory and will be held accountable for it,” the army added.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry condemned the strikes in a statement carried by SANA.
It warned that Israeli attacks in Syria and other countries in the region risked leading to “a dangerous escalation” with “dire, unpredictable consequences.”
Israel’s strikes on Syria had intensified after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel sparked war in the Gaza Strip, then eased after an April 1 strike blamed on Israel hit the Iranian consular building in Damascus.
Israel has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its foothold in Syria.
The attack came as Syria prepares to hold parliamentary elections on Monday, in a vote expected to return power to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s ruling Baath party.
