SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Two civilians killed in Israeli strike on Syria: state media
Damascus, April 3 (AFP) Apr 03, 2023
Two Syrian civilians were killed in an Israeli air strike Tuesday, state media reported, the fourth such attack on government-held areas of the war-torn country in less than a week.

"At 00:15 (2115 GMT Monday) the Israeli enemy carried out an air strike... and the attack resulted in the death of two civilians," state news agency SANA said, quoting a military source.

The strike came from the direction of "the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting some points in the vicinity of Damascus and the southern region", it said, adding that air defence intercepted "most of" the missiles.

During more than a decade of civil war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on Syrian territory, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions.

SANA had earlier reported "an explosion heard in the vicinity of Damascus".

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor gave the same civilian death toll, with its director Rami Abdel Rahman adding that "an unknown number of Iran-backed fighters were also killed" in the strike.

Israel fired "barrages of missiles targeting military areas controlled by Iran-backed groups and regime air defence," said the Britain-based monitor with a wide range of sources inside Syria.

An Israeli missile targeted a radar in the countryside of Sweida, while another hit a glass factory in the Al-Kiswah area of the Damascus countryside, killing the two civilians, it said.

The monitor had earlier said the missiles also targeted the vicinity of Damascus International Airport and an Iranian complex near the Sayyida Zeinab area, with Syria's air defence intercepting at least two missiles.

On Sunday, two Iran-affiliated fighters were killed in an Israeli air strike on targets in Syria, according to the monitor, with SANA reporting five Syrian soldiers wounded.

Israel struck early Sunday near the western city of Homs, after striking the Syrian capital Thursday and early Friday.

A rare car bombing also rocked Damascus on Sunday, with no deaths reported and no side claiming responsibility.

While Israel rarely comments on the strikes it carries out on Syria, it has repeatedly said it will not allow its arch-foe Iran to extend its footprint in the war-torn country.

The Syrian war broke out in 2011 with the brutal repression of peaceful anti-government protests, and escalated into a deadly armed conflict that pulled in foreign powers and global jihadists.

More than half a million people have been killed and around half of Syria's pre-war population has been forced from their homes.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
Mars glaciers are purer and more uniform than previously thought
Curiosity Rovers Boxwork Campaign Reaches New Heights on Mount Sharp
Skyfall Mars helicopter fleet to scout future astronaut landing sites

24/7 Energy News Coverage
MicroCarb satellite launches to map global carbon dioxide emissions from space
Chemistry breakthroughs open new frontiers in industrial carbon capture
Rollable solar array by GalaxySpace redefines satellite compactness and power efficiency

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
BlackSky to supply satellite imagery and analytics for Latin American security operations
GovSat selects Thales Alenia Space to build secure satellite for military communications
SES and Luxembourg to expand military satcom with next generation GovSat2

24/7 News Coverage
One billion years of protein evolution reveals surprising design flexibility
MetOp Second Generation satellite fully fuelled ahead of August launch
We tracked illegal fishing in marine protected areas - satellites and AI show most bans are respected, and could help enforce future ones



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.