Damascus, Syria.- An Israeli bombardment left at least 15 dead and destroyed a residential building in the Syrian capital of Damascus, a war monitoring agency reported this Sunday (Local Time).
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bombing, which hit near an Iranian cultural center, left 15 dead, including civilians. The Syrian state press reported “deaths and injuries” without specifying the number.
Loud explosions were heard over the capital at around 12:30 p.m. and Syrian air defenses were reported to be “engaging hostile targets in the sky around Damascus.”
There was no immediate statement from Israel about the attack. Israeli airstrikes frequently target sites in the vicinity of Damascus. The strikes overnight were the first since a devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Turkey and Syria on February 6.
The last reported attack in Damascus was on January 2, when the Syrian army reported that Israel’s militia fired missiles at the capital’s international airport, putting it out of action and killing two soldiers and wounding two others.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes against targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but rarely acknowledges or disputes the operations.
Israel has acknowledged, however, that it is attacking bases of militant groups allied to Iran, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.
The Israeli attacks come amid a broader shadow war between Israel and Iran. The attacks on the Damascus and Aleppo airports were sparked by fears they were being used to funnel Iranian weapons into the country.
