Syrian state media: Suspected Israeli airstrikes target Damascus

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This article was published 28/05/2023 (929 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DAMASCUS (AP) — Airstrikes attributed to Israel targeted Syria’s capital city late Sunday, the first such strikes in a month, Syrian state media reported.

Syrian air defenses responded to the strikes in the vicinity of Damascus and shot down some of them, state news agency SANA reported. The attack caused only “material damage,” it said.

The last suspected Israeli airstrike on Syria was on April 29, targeting the province of Homs. SANA, citing military officials, said at the time that three civilians were wounded in the strike and that a civilian fuel station caught fire and a number of fuel tankers and trucks were burned.

There was no immediate statement from Israeli authorities regarding Sunday’s strikes on Damascus.

Israel, which has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment next door, has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of neighboring Syria in recent years, but rarely acknowledges them.

However, Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said earlier this month in an address at a security conference that the new Israeli government has greatly increased the number of strikes on Iranian targets since taking office late last year.

Last week, an Israeli army spokesperson said in a statement that an Israeli drone conducting a surveillance mission in Syrian airspace “came under fire by small arms” and Israeli forces responded with machine gun fire.