Suspected Israeli strikes hit Damascus, at least 3 killed including 2 ‘non-Syrian’

Suspected Israeli airstrikes struck a residential building in the Syrian capital Damascus on Wednesday, in the latest attack in Syria attributed to Israel.

Syria’s state news agency blamed Israel for the attack that took place in the Kafr Sousa district of Damascus. It did not provide more details. The district lies near a heavily fortified complex hosting state security agencies.

According to Sawt al-Assema, a local independent media organization, three Israeli precision-guided missiles hit several apartments of the building.

At least three people have been reported killed so far and several others injured, according to media close to the government and a war monitor.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said one of the victims was a Syrian civilian. It added that the other two were non-Syrians who were present inside one of the apartments targeted by Israel. They did not share more details of their identities. 

The UK-based monitor, which has a vast network of sources on the ground in Syria, added that the building lies next to an Iranian school, and leaders from the Lebanese Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps often visit the targeted area.

Israel has yet to comment on the strikes.

Last February, a suspected Israeli attack in the same Kafr Sousa district killed at least 15 people, including two civilians. At the time, the SOHR said the attack targeted a meeting of Syrian government officers.

Israel has repeatedly carried out strikes against suspected Iranian-linked targets inside Syria since the civil war erupted in 2011. These operations have increased in frequency after the Israel-Hamas war erupted in the Gaza Strip in October, in response to a wave of attacks by pro-Iranian groups in the region against Israel.

The SOHR has documented 13 attacks attributed to Israel inside Syrian territory since the start of this year. The attacks left 31 fighters dead and 13 others injured, including members of Iranian-backed groups and Hezbollah, according to the SOHR.