Syria accuses Israel of killing three servicemen in missile strike on Damascus outskirts

Observatory raises death toll to six, stresses that among them are three foreigners

The Syrian Defense Ministry on Friday accused Israel of killing three military personnel and wounding seven others when it launched a missile strike on the outskirts of Syria’s capital Damascus.

“At 0032 hours (local time) on Friday, the Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression with missile volleys from the direction of the Golan, targeting some points in the vicinity of the city of Damascus, and our air defense assets confronted the aggression missiles and fired some of them, there are some losses,” the Syrian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

A military source has confirmed to the Syrian state news agency, SANA, that the attack has resulted in “the death of three soldiers, and seven others have been wounded and caused some material losses.”

For its part, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has raised to six the number of dead, including three foreigners, and has pointed out that ten other people have been wounded in the attack, without Israel having pronounced itself so far on what happened.

The agency, based in London and with informants in the Arab country, has said through its website that the attack has hit the offices of the Air Force Intelligence services and a vehicle in the vicinity of the military airport of Al Maza.

It has also stressed that other targets hit are a security post near the airport, the road connecting the facility and an Iranian warehouse in Sayida Zainab. This last point would have been “completely destroyed”.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes against Syrian territory despite numerous complaints by Damascus to the UN Security Council, where it points out that these actions infringe on its sovereignty and threaten regional stability.

The Israeli authorities justify these attacks by arguing that the aim is to prevent the establishment of Iranian bases in the country and the shipment of weapons to the Lebanese Shiite militia-party Hezbollah by the Iranian authorities, who support Damascus in the framework of the war that broke out in 2011.