LONDON: Syria TV anchor Safaa Ahmad was killed on Tuesday morning in an Israeli airstrike on the Mezzeh district in Syria’s capital, Damascus.
State agency SANA said the strike killed three civilians, including Ahmad, and wounded nine others.
The Mezzeh district in western Damascus is home to many residential blocks, local businesses and diplomatic premises, including the Iranian Embassy.
Syria’s state television said in a statement it “mourns anchor Safaa Ahmad, who was martyred in the Israeli aggression on the capital Damascus.”
The Syrian military told SANA that Israel carried out “an air aggression with military aircraft and drones on Tuesday at dawn from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan,” targeting several points in Damascus and its outskirts.
Syria’s air defense said they intercepted and shot down most of the Israeli missiles targeting the capital and its suburbs on Tuesday morning.
Journalist Ahmad, who hails from Homs, joined the state broadcaster Syria TV in 2002 and hosted several cultural talk shows and programs, including the flagship breakfast show “Sabah Al-Kheir.”
Reports of Israel’s strikes on the Syrian capital came as its military launched ground raids in neighboring Lebanon, marking a major escalation of its onslaught, which it claims is targeting the armed group Hezbollah.
