Syrian state television and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday (21) that an Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in the Kafr Sousa district of the country's capital Damascus, killing two people.
A military source quoted by television said the attack took place around 9:40 a.m. (5:40 a.m. in Brasília) and injured several other people. According to them, the dead were civilians.
However, the military source claimed that the “attack failed to achieve its objectives.”
What happened
Television images showed the affected highrise building with its charred side. The neighborhood is home to Iranian residential buildings, schools and cultural centers and is near a large, heavily guarded complex used by security agencies. According to state television, witnesses heard several consecutive explosions, frightening children at a nearby school.
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The district was the target of an Israeli attack in February 2023 that killed Iranian military experts.
Tel Aviv has not yet commented on the attack.
“Axis of Resistance”
Syria is part of Iran's network of allies in the Middle East, which also includes military groups such as the Lebanese group Hezbollah. Syrian President Bashar alAssad was dependent on Tehran's support during the almost twelveyear civil war in Syria. This has led to regular Israeli airstrikes aimed at limiting Iranian military power outside their country.
These attacks have increased since the Palestinian terror group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 amid rising tensions in the region. Since December, more than half a dozen Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers have been killed in suspected Israeli strikes in Syria.
According to the Portal news agency, the Guard then reduced the deployment of its senior soldiers in Syria and delegated the task of maintaining its influence in the country to allied Shiite militias.
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Iran, which also supports Hamas, has tried to stay out of the direct conflict in Gaza and its fallout. This is despite supporting factions in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Syria that have joined the fight the socalled “Axis of Resistance,” the core of which is antiJewish state and antiAmerican.