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Syria: Seven killed in Israeli strike in Damascus

The target of the attack was reportedly Haj Samer, a senior official in Hezbollah’s Unit 4400, responsible for transferring weapons from Iran and its proxies.

A residential building hit by a reported Israeli airstrike in the Mazzeh suburb on the western outskirts of Syria's capital of Damascus on Oct. 8, 2024. Photo by Louai Beshara/AFP via Getty Images.
A residential building hit by a reported Israeli airstrike in the Mazzeh suburb on the western outskirts of Syria’s capital of Damascus on Oct. 8, 2024. Photo by Louai Beshara/AFP via Getty Images.

Syrian state media reported on Tuesday that an Israeli airstrike targeted a residential building in Damascus, killing seven people and wounding 11 others.

The strike, in the Mazzeh district of the Syrian capital, also caused significant material damage, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an organization associated with the Syrian opposition, reported that nine people were killed, including two non-Syrians.

According to Ynet, the target of the strike was Haj Samer, a senior official in Hezbollah’s Unit 4400, responsible for transferring weapons to the terrorist group from Iran and its proxies.

According to the Saudi state-owned Al Arabiya TV channel, the building that was struck was frequented by Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah officials.

The upscale neighborhood where the attack occurred is home to the Iranian embassy, which tweeted that no Iranian citizens were killed in the strike.

On April 1, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Zahedi, a top commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force responsible for Syria and Lebanon, was killed in an alleged Israeli strike on a building adjacent to the Iranian embassy in Damascus.

That attack prompted Iran’s first-ever direct strike on Israel a couple of weeks later.

On Sept. 30, Syrian media reported that three people had been killed and nine wounded in Israeli airstrikes in Damascus. One of those killed was well-known Syrian TV journalist Safaa Ahmed, according to Syrian state television.

Israel rarely admits to attacks on Syrian territory, although in February Jerusalem revealed that it had attacked more than 50 targets belonging to Hezbollah and other Iran-backed terror groups in Syria since Oct. 7.

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