Ajit Karn
An Israeli missile attack early on Sunday demolished a building and killed 15 people in a neighbourhood of Damascus that houses a significant portion of Syria’s security forces, according to a war monitor.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 15 persons, including civilians, were killed in the strike that occurred near to an Iranian cultural centre.
Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes on its neighbour since the conflict in Syria broke out in 2011, largely focusing on the positions of the Syrian army, Iranian troops, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, supporters of the Syrian regime.
Yet it seldom ever affects the capital’s residential sections.
The attack on Sunday occurred at Kafr Sousa, the location of the intelligence, security, and top governmental offices.
Syria’s defence ministry released a statement saying that at 00:22 am (2222 GMT), the Israeli enemy launched an aircraft attack from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights that targeted multiple locations in Damascus and its environs, including civilian neighbourhoods.
According to a preliminary toll, the attack injured 15 civilians, some of whom were in serious condition, and killed five individuals, among them a soldier.
State television footage revealed that the strike severely damaged a 10-story skyscraper, collapsing the structure of its lowest levels.
Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of the British-based Observatory, which has a vast network of informants inside Syria, claimed that the bombing on Sunday was the bloodiest Israeli attack on the Syrian capital.
The assault occurs more than a month after an Israeli missile strike killed four people, including two troops, when it struck the Damascus International Airport.
The Observatory stated at the time that the January 2 attack “struck locations for Hezbollah and pro-Iranian forces within the airport and its vicinity, including a weapons depot.”
Although Israel’s military seldom discusses its airstrikes in Syria, it frequently declares that it will prevent Iran from influencing Israel’s boundaries.
Major General Oded Basiuk, the commander of the Israel Defense Forces Operations Directorate, gave the military’s “operational vision” for 2023 at the end of the previous year and stated that the force “would not permit Hezbollah 2.0 in Syria.”
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The most recent attack occurs as the administration in Damascus works to recover from the earthquake that occurred on February 6, which did not damage the city but killed more than 43,000 people in northern Syria and southern Turkey.
