Israeli airstrikes hit outskirts of Damascus, Syrian military says – Winnipeg Free Press

Damascus (AP) – The Israeli air force has struck several targets on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, the Syrian military said Saturday.

The strikes were carried out in the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Syrian state news agency SANA reported, citing an unnamed military official. He also said that some were shot down by air defenses, and that those that landed caused “some material losses.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British war monitor, said one of the strikes hit a residential building in the west of the capital. He reported that three unidentified people were killed. Earlier, he said that the causes could be “representatives of non-Syrian nations”. The Observatory said Saturday's attack was Israel's 10th apparent strike on Syrian territory since the start of the year.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

The strikes come as tensions in the Middle East escalate over the Israel-Hamas war and last month's drone strike that killed three US troops in northeastern Jordan near the border with Syria.

Previous alleged Israeli strikes in Syria have killed senior officials in Iran's Revolutionary Guard and allied groups. In December, a top Iranian general, Seyed Razi Mousavi, a longtime adviser to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guards in Syria, was killed in a strike near Damascus.

Tensions flared in other parts of the region. A commander of Kataib Hezbollah, one of Iraq's most powerful armed groups, was killed in a US airstrike in Baghdad on Wednesday as part of Washington's retaliation for the killing of three American soldiers in Jordan last month.