320x50

Israeli strike near Damascus kills three: war monitor

Israeli strike near Damascus kills three: war monitor

DAMASCUS (AFP): An Israeli strike on an apartment belonging to the Lebanese Hezbollah group killed three people Sunday in a stronghold of pro-Iran groups south of Damascus, a war monitor said.

“An Israeli air strike killed three people in the Sayyida Zeinab area,” Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.

“The Israeli attack targeted (Hezbollah) figures in the building,” said the monitor which has a network of sources inside Syria.

It said that two locations “where Hezbollah members live” near the Sayyida Zeinab municipality were hit.

Syria’s official SANA news agency reported an “Israeli aggression targeting a residential building in the Sayyida Zeinab” area that killed and injured an unspecified number of people.

On Saturday, four pro-Iran fighters were among five people killed in Israeli strikes in north and northwest Syria, the Observatory reported.

Since Syria’s civil war broke out in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria, mainly targeting army positions and fighters including from Hezbollah.

Israeli authorities rarely comment on the strikes, but have repeatedly said they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence in Syria.