DAMASCUS: Israeli strikes killed three Syrian soldiers on Tuesday, state media and official sources said, as Tel Aviv continues attacks on the country’s new leaders even as it pursues talks.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since an alliance toppled longtime ruler Bashar al Assad in December.

It has also opened talks with the interim authorities in Damascus.

The three soldiers were killed in an attack near Damascus, an official at the defence ministry said.

“An Israeli drone targeted one of the military buildings of the 44th division of the Syrian army in Kiswah, west of Damascus, killing three members of the division,” the official said.

Earlier in the day, the official SANA news agency reported that “a young man was killed in an Israeli strike on a home in the village of Taranja”, on the formerly Syria-controlled side of the armistice line on the Golan Heights.

Syria condemned “the recent Israeli attacks on its territory, which resulted in the martyrdom of a young man”, the foreign ministry said.

It also condemned the Israeli incursion into a town in the Quneitra countryside, their “arrest campaigns against civilians”, and their “announcement of the continuation of their illegal presence on the summit of Mount Hermon and the buffer zone”.

“These aggressive practices constitute a flagrant violation of the UN Charter, international law, and relevant Security Council resolutions, and constitute a direct threat to peace and security in the region”.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that it had carried out “several activities last week in southern Syria to locate weapons and apprehend suspects”.

The Saudi foreign ministry said the Israeli attacks were a “flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the sisterly Syrian Arab Republic and international law”.

Since Assad’s overthrow, Israel has occupied much of a UN-patrolled demilitarised zone on the formerly Syria-controlled side of the armistice line, including the summit of Mount Hermon, the region’s highest peak.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2025