New Delhi: A Syrian war watchdog group said Israel carried out airstrikes on military posts south of the capital Damascus on Monday, killing five foreign fighters and injuring several others.
However, there has been no comment from Israel.
Israel attacks Damascus
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deceased were members of Iranian-backed groups. The group monitors the Syrian civil war through a network of activists on the ground.
The injured include four foreign fighters and a Syrian member of an air-defense unit. A Monday night airstrike on the southern side of Damascus devastated arms depots and military outposts.
7 Israeli soldiers injured
On Monday, the Syrian military said the country’s air security responded to Israeli airstrikes in South Damascus. They wounded seven soldiers and other material was damaged.
Syrian state media cited an unidentified military official as saying that Israeli warplanes carried out the attack while flying over Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria during the 1967 Middle East War. The official said that several missiles were shot down before they reached the target.
Israel rarely comments on such reports, but it is believed to have carried out strikes targeting Iran’s military presence in Syria. In the last two months alone, Syria has accused Israel of carrying out at least eight airstrikes in its territory.
The final report came in late June. Iran has been a major ally of the Syrian government for nearly a decade in the civil war. Tehran sent Iran-backed fighters to fight with thousands of Syrian government forces in previous years.
Israel sees Iran as a regional threat and has vowed to stop any permanent Iranian military buildup in Syria.
