DUBAI: Fifteen people were killed and 16 injured in Israeli attacks on a number of residential buildings in suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus on Thursday, state news agency SANA reported, citing a Syrian military source. One building was located in the suburb of Mazzeh and the other in Qudsaya, west of the capital.
Israeli army radio said the targets of the attack in Damascus were a headquarters of the Palestinian militant groups and what it described as other assets, without elaborating.
Israel has been carrying out strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years but has ramped up such raids since last year's Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian group Hamas on Israeli territory that sparked the Gaza war.
Commanders in Lebanon's Hezbollah armed group and Iran's Revolutionary Guards based in Syria have been known to reside in Mazzeh, according to residents who fled after recent strikes that killed some key figures from the groups. Mazzeh's high rise blocks have been used by the authorities in the past to house leaders of Palestinian factions. On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it attacked routes between Syria and Lebanon used to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah from Syria. Israel said it has been carrying out such strikes to reduce the transfer of weapons. Syrian media said that air defences intercepted "hostile" targets over the Homs countryside.— Reuters
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