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Israeli strikes said to target Damascus area

The alleged IAF attack came shortly after the U.S. military launched a new round of airstrikes in Iraq

Israel-Syria Border
The border between Syria and Israel as seen from the Golan Heights, Oct. 30, 2023. Photo by Michael Giladi/Flash90.

Israel Air Force fighter jets struck two targets in the Damascus area on Wednesday, the Syrian Ministry of Defense claimed.

The pro-Assad regime Sham FM radio station reported that Syrian air defenses engaged “hostile targets” in the area of Sayyidah Zaynab, some six miles south of Damascus.

There was no immediate information on casualties or damage.

The alleged Israeli attack came shortly after the U.S. military carried out a new round of airstrikes in Iraq, targeting two facilities used by a terrorist group that has targeted American and Coalition troops.

The Pentagon said the military struck an operations center and command and control node south of Baghdad used by Kata’ib Hezbollah (“Battalions of the Party of God”), one of the largest Iran-backed militias in Iraq with close links to Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

The U.S. has designated Kata’ib Hezbollah (a separate and distinct organization from the Lebanese Hezbollah group) as a terrorist organization.

Iran’s terrorist proxies have upped their attacks on American forces in the Middle East since Hamas invaded southwestern Israel on Oct. 7.

On Tuesday, the U.S. carried out two series of strikes in Iraq against Kata’ib Hezbollah targets. The attacks were the first by the U.S. military inside Iraq since Oct. 7.

“The strikes were in direct response to the attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces by Iran and Iran-backed groups,” the Pentagon said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian touched down in Lebanon on Wednesday for meetings with leaders of his country’s terror proxies.

“Without a doubt, the past six weeks of heroic resistance have proven that time is not on the side of the artificial Israeli entity,” Iran’s top diplomat stated at a press conference at Beirut’s international airport.

“We heard from the resistance leaders in the region that their fingers will be on the trigger until the full rights of the Palestinian people are fulfilled and until the struggle in the region reaches a result,” Amir-Abdollahian said.

The prime minister-in-waiting said the Labour Party must “do more to put pressure on the Israeli government.”
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