DAMASCUS: At least six pro-government
fighters, including Syrian troops, were
killed in Israeli air strikes on Thursday
targeting positions held by Iran-backed
groups near the capital Damascus, a
war monitor reported. It is the fourth
time this month that Israeli strikes have
been reported inside Syria, keeping up
a campaign against pro-Iranian forces
supporting the Damascus government
in the more than decade-old civil
war.”Israeli strikes killed six people,
including two Syrian troops and four
Iran-backed militia fighters whose
nationalities remain unknown,” the
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
said.The Britain-based monitor, which
has an extensive network of sources
across the country, said the raids
“targeted positions and arm depots”
operated by Iran-backed groups
near Damascus airport, destroying
several weapon caches. The strikes
also targeted air defences south of
Damascus, said the Observatory,
which did not elaborate on any
damage.Syrian state media said the
attack came at around 1:10 am.The
official SANA news agency said air
defences intercepted most of the
missiles but three soldiers were killed. The
latest raids follow Israel’s bombardment
this week of a Syrian town near the
armistice line on the Golan Heights,
and strikes on a Syrian military post
on February 17, and on anti-aircraft
batteries at the start of the month.The
Observatory said Israel has carried out
raids in Syria at least six times since
the start of the year.Asked about the
latest strikes, an Israeli army spokesman
said: “We don’t comment on reports
in foreign media”.Since civil war broke
out in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried
out hundreds of airstrikes inside the
country, targeting government positions
as well as allied Iran-backed forces
and fighters of the Shiite militant
movement Hezbollah.While Israel
rarely comments on individual strikes in
Syria, it has acknowledged mounting
hundreds since 2011. According to the
Israeli military, it hit around 50 targets
inside Syria in 2020. Last year, Israel
hit Syria roughly 30 times, killing 130
people – five civilians and 125 loyalist
fighters, according to Observatory
figures.In December, it carried out
a strike targeting an Iranian arms
shipment in Latakia – in the heartland
of President Bashar al-Assad’s minority
Alawite community – its first on the
port since the start of the civil war.The
Israeli military has defended the strikes
as a necessary measure to prevent its
arch-foe Iran from gaining a foothold
on its doorstep.lsrael’s head of military
intelligence, Major General Aharon
Haliva, has accused Iran of “continuing
to promote subversion and terror” in the
Middle East.Published in Dawn, February
25th 2022
