Israel carried out an airstrike on military posts in the suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday despite it usually carrying out attacks at night. Such daytime raids have been considered rare.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the Israeli strikes targeted sites in the Dimas area of the Damascus countryside, where Iran-backed groups like Hezbollah and the Syrian military operate.
“The Israeli bombing targeted a battalion in the Khirbet al-Sheyab area of al-Kiswah in the Damascus countryside,” said the SOHR, adding that Israel had targeted an airport in Dimas which is directly affiliated with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah.
According to sources, three regime soldiers were wounded, without information on the presence of casualties. The bombing, however, caused material damage to the targeted areas.
As for Israel’s Monday raid, a Syrian military source said that a soldier was wounded.
Syria’s official news agency SANA, citing a military source, reported that Israeli warplanes fired several missiles from the direction of the north of the Occupied Palestinian Territories at some targets near Damascus at about 2:00 p.m. local time (14:00 GMT) on Monday, but Syrian air defenses could bring down most of the projectiles.
The source also noted that the strikes injured a soldier and caused some material damage.
Israel, which rarely comments on individual strikes but has acknowledged carrying out hundreds, usually launches air strikes on Syria overnight. It primarily targets areas where Iran loyalist fighters and Hezbollah operate.
According to Germany’s DPA, eyewitnesses living on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus, reported on Monday hearing two violent explosions west of Damascus, followed by two other explosions south of the capital.
In September, five soldiers were killed in an Israeli strike around Damascus, and Israeli airstrikes in June put the Damascus airport out of service for nearly two weeks.
