DAMASCUS: A Syrian soldier was killed early on Sunday and three others wounded in Israeli strikes on several positions in and around Damascus, Syrian state media said.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, said it had targeted a Syrian military command centre as well as targets and infrastructure belonging to the Syrian army and air defence in response to two drones launched towards Israel from Syrian territory.

The statement was a rare acknowledgement by the Israeli military of action in Syria, where it has launched hundreds of strikes since the country’s civil war erupted in 2011, mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters.

“A soldier was killed and three others injured following an aerial aggression launched by the Israeli enemy after midnight” on Sunday, Syria’s state news agency SANA reported.

The strike “was launched from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights”, which Israel seized in 1967, and targeted “several military positions in the southern region and a residential building in the Kafr Sousa district of Damascus”, it added. SANA said that aerial defence systems had intercepted and downed a number of missiles “despite their intensity”.

The news agency published a photo showing a fire in what appeared to be a crater caused by the blast. A journalist visiting the scene said the strike caused a crater about 30 metres long and 10 metres wide.

The facade of an eight-storey building was damaged, with its windows shattered, while around 30 cars were left charred or damaged around the impact site.

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2024