Alleged Israeli airstrikes targeted a residential neighborhood in central Damascus early Sunday, Syrian state news reported.
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Syrian state media agency SANA, citing a source in the Damascus police command, reported that five people and one soldier were killed and 15 others wounded.
Video: Reuters
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, reported that 15 people, including a woman, were killed in strikes targeting sites connected with Iranian militias and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. They took place in the Damascus countryside and on an Iranian school in the neighborhood of Kafr Sousa in the capital.
The strike damaged several buildings in the densely populated area close to Omayyad square in the heart of the capital. Loud explosions were heard over the capital around 12:30 a.m. local time, and SANA reported that Syrian air defenses were "confronting hostile targets in the sky around Damascus."
There was no immediate statement from Israel on the attack. Israeli airstrikes frequently target sites in the vicinity of Damascus. Saturday's were the first since a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Syria – as well as Turkey – on Feb. 6.
The last reported attack on Damascus was on Jan. 2, when the Syrian army reported that Israel's military fired missiles toward the country's international airport, putting it out of service and killing two soldiers and wounding two others.
Israel has reportedly carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations. It has acknowledged, however, that it targets bases of Iran-allied terrorist groups, such as Lebanon's Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.
The Israeli strikes come amid a wider shadow war between Israel and Iran. The attacks on airports in Damascus and Aleppo were over fears they were being used to funnel Iranian weaponry into the country.
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