Damascus (AFP) – A bombing attributed to Israel in a neighborhood of the Syrian capital killed at least two people on Wednesday, an NGO and the Arab country's state television said.
First change: 02/21/2024 – 10:44 Last change: 02/21/2024 – 11:13
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“An Israeli missile strike hit the residential neighborhood of Kafr Sousa in the capital Damascus,” Syrian state television said.
“At least two people were killed in the Israeli airstrike on an apartment” in that district, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), a UK-based NGO that has a wide network of sources in that country.
Kafr Sousa is a prestigious district in Damascus that houses official buildings, army and security force barracks, and an Iranian cultural center near the building hit by the attack, this organization noted.
State agency SANA released images showing a multi-story building with its facade partially charred and windows broken.
At the time the photo was taken, flames were still coming from an apartment, presumably where the projectile hit.
According to an AFP photographer, the attack hit a nine-story building, particularly damaging the fourth floor.
Authorities cordoned off the area where firefighters tried to put out the flames, he added.
Since the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes against its neighbor, mainly against Iranian-backed armed groups such as Hezbollah, but also against army positions.
These attacks have increased since Israel's war against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas began on October 7.
On February 3, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said they had attacked more than 50 Hezbollah targets in Syria and 3,400 in Lebanon since the war broke out in Gaza.
Israel rarely comments on attacks in Syria but has repeatedly warned that it will not allow Iran, its regional nemesis and backer of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, to expand its presence there.
© 2024 AFP