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Syrian media claims 4 civilians, including baby, killed in Israeli air strikes

Israel conducted extensive strikes against targets in Syria overnight on Sunday, the country’s media reports.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel hit at least 10 targets around the Syrian cities of Damascus and Homs overnight Sunday, Sana, the Syrian state news agency, reported on Monday morning. It claimed that “four civilians, including a baby” were killed and 21 others injured in the town of Sahnaya near Damascus.

According to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an independent London-based monitoring group, Israeli warplanes struck the  headquarters of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in the Al-Kiswah area south of Syria’s capital of Damascus.

It also hit a scientific research center west of Homs, the group reports.

The civilian dead were the result of an attack on the orchards between Jadidat Artouz and Sahnaya in Rif Dimashq, it said, “which caused material damage to property of the citizens and the injury of a number of citizens due to the fall of missiles’ remnants on the area.”

The airstrikes also knocked out military targets affiliated with the Lebanese Hezbollah “in the barren mountains of Qara and Felita,” causing fires, the result of explosions from ammunition warehouses.

The monitoring group observed ambulances heading to the area and said it expects there are Lebanese Hezbollah wounded.

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Sana reports that Israeli missiles were intercepted.

In Cyprus, the foreign minister said a Russian-made missile launched from Syria landed in its territory.

Israel did not comment on the report. However, it has made plain that it will not tolerate Iran’s presence in Syria and has conducted numerous attacks over the years to prevent Iran from entrenching on Syrian soil and transferring weapons to its proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Last week, Israel held a trilateral meeting with the U.S. and Russia in Jerusalem. However, while the U.S. and Israel expressed their desire to see Syria rid of its Iranian presence, Russia defended Iran. On June 25, Russia’s National Security Adviser Nikolai Patrushev said Iran was “contributing a lot to fighting terrorists on Syrian soil and stabilizing the situation there.”

He described Israeli airstrikes in Syria as “undesirable.”