Israeli attacks in Damascus kill 15 people according to Syrian state media

The news agency, SANA, said the air strikes in the Mazeh district of Damascus and in the suburbs northwest of the capital hit two buildings.

The Associated Press reported from the site of the Mazzih event that a five-story building was damaged after being hit by a rocket.

The Israeli Army said it has hit the command centres and infrastructure targets of the militant group, Islamic Jihad, in Syria, and that it has caused a <x0 damage to the command centre of its terrorist organisation and operatives”.

Air strikes in Damascus and its suburbs occurred just before Ali Larian, adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was expected to meet in the Syrian capital with representatives of Palestinian factions at the Iranian Embassy in Mazzih.

The Israeli Army declared that Islamic Jihad had participated, along with Hamas, the Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip, in the October 7th 2023 attacks in southern Israel, that sparked the current Middle East war.

Hamas is declared a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union.

The military said that “will continue to act against the terrorist organisation Islamic Jihad wherever necessary”.

An official of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group said the Mazeh attack targeted one of their offices and that some members of the group were killed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, since he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Syria State News Agency, SANA, said the country's air defenses were activated against a “hostile target” south of the central city of Homs. She gave no further details.

Tehran has been the main supporter of the Syrian president's government, Bashar al-Assad, since a 2011 uprising that turned into full civil war and played a crucial role in turning the situation in its favour.

Iran has sent dozens of military advisers and thousands of Tehran-backed fighters from all over the Middle East to Syria to fight on Assad's side.

Tehran has also been an economic source for Assad, helping him with fuel and loans worth billions of dollars.

Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria targeting Hezbollah members and officials of Iran-backed groups.

Hezbollah, who controls southern Lebanon, has been declared a terrorist organisation by the United States, while the European Union has put its armed arm on the blacklist, but not his political party. /rel