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Israel Air Force strikes Damascus

On Friday, four people were reportedly killed in an alleged Israeli drone strike near the shared border.

Explosions in Damascus destroy an arms depot belonging to Iranian-backed groups, Aug. 13, 2023. Credit: Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Explosions in Damascus destroy an arms depot belonging to Iranian-backed groups, Aug. 13, 2023. Credit: Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Israel Air Force fighter jets struck several targets in and around Damascus on Sunday night, causing some material damage.

“Nearly at 23:05 p.m. on Sunday, the Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting some points in the vicinity of Damascus,” the state-run SANA news agency reported, citing a military source.

The report said Syrian air defenses “repelled” the attack by downing Israeli missiles, a common claim that most analysts dismiss as bluster.

On Friday, four people were reportedly killed by an alleged Israeli drone strike on a vehicle in Syria near the shared border.

Iranian-backed Hezbollah said three of its operatives were killed, including Hassan Ali Dakdouk, the son of Ali Mussa Dakdouk, who oversees the terrorist group’s operations in southern Syria.

Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported that the elder Dakdouk previously trained Iranian-supported militias in Iraq to target American forces. U.S. troops detained him in 2007 but he was later released.

Israel Air Force fighter jets attacked targets south of Damascus in response to rocket fire launched from Syria on Thursday.

The Sham FM radio station, which supports the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, said that explosions were heard in the “southwestern Damascus countryside” as well as in the area of Quneitra, near the border with the Jewish state.

Earlier on Thursday, air-raid sirens warned of incoming rockets in the Israeli part of the Golan Heights. Army Radio reported that several own projectiles hit an open area in the Druze town of Buq’ata.

Last week, Israeli airstrikes near Damascus killed two Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers.

Israel has struck hundreds of targets in Syria in recent years as part of an effort to prevent Iranian military entrenchment in the country. However, Jerusalem rarely acknowledges these incidents.

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