No Iranian casualties in Israel’s strike on Damascus that killed two: Report

An Israeli strike Wednesday on a residential area of Damascus killed at least two people, Syrian official media reported, the latest fatalities as hostilities increase during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

“At least two [were] killed,” Syria’s state TV said, in what it earlier described an “Israeli attack with a number of missiles” that targeted the Kafr Sousa neighborhood in the capital Damascus.

The strike hit a nine-story building whose outside had been partially blackened, with damaged centered around the fourth floor, while nearby cars were also damaged.

Authorities had cordoned off the area, while firefighters were trying to extinguish the subsequent blaze, the photographer said.

Iran’s semi-official Student News Network said the strike did not kill any Iranian nationals or advisers.

Kafr Sousa, a high-security area of the Syrian capital, is home to senior security officials, security branches, intelligence headquarters and an Iranian cultural center.

Since Syria’s civil war broke out in 2011, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes on its northern neighbor, mainly targeting Iran-backed forces, including Hezbollah militants as well as Syrian army positions.

The strikes have increased since Israel’s war with Hamas began on October 7.

On February 10, Israeli airstrikes that targeted a building in an upscale area near Damascus killed three people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

A day earlier, an area near a military airport west of Damascus came under missile attack, the Observatory had said, while the defense ministry said drones had entered Syrian airspace from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Earlier this month, the Observatory had said seven civilians were among 11 people killed in Israeli airstrikes on the central Syrian city of Homs.

The strikes completely levelled a building in one of the city’s most affluent districts, and also hit other targets linked to Iran-backed groups, it added.

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran – which backs President Bashar al-Assad’s government and Lebanon’s Hamas ally Hezbollah – to expand its presence in Syria.

On February 3, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said the military had attacked more than 50 Hezbollah targets in Syria and 3,400 in Lebanon since the start of the Gaza war.