Israel Allegedly Carries Out Airstrike in Damascus

Syria’s state-run media outlet reported that Israeli Air Force carried out airstrikes in the Syrian capital, Damascus early Thursday morning. According to Syria’s state news agency SANA, the airstrike wounded two soldiers and caused material damage. Footage shared on social media showed smoke rising from sites in the al-Midan and adjacent Kafar Sousah neighborhoods of the capital. The conditions of the two soldiers were not immediately clear.

“At around 01:20 am, the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial aggression from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights targeting several positions in the vicinity of Damascus,” Syria’s Defense Ministry said.

In recent years, Israel is believed to have carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria, including attacks on the Damascus and Aleppo airports. Israel rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations, but it has targeted bases of Iran-allied groups, such as Lebanon’s Hizbullah, that have sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces. Israel views Iran’s expansion throughout Syria as a continued threat to its national security and has conducted strikes across a broad range of targets in an effort to curb Iran’s forces in the region.

Thursday’s reported airstrike came after two attacks in recent weeks against the Aleppo International Airport, also attributed to Israel. Those attacks temporarily closed the airport’s runway. One of the strikes last week targeted an underground munitions depot at the adjacent Nairab military airport, used to store missile-guided systems delivered by Iranian cargo flights. Also this month, Israel carried out a rare daytime strike against targets in northwestern Syria, injuring three soldiers and causing damage, SANA said.