WORLD NEWS | Israel strikes in Damascus, two weeks after earthquake

DAMASCUS, Feb. 19 (AP) — Israel launched an airstrike on a residential neighborhood in central Damascus early Sunday morning, Syrian state news reported.

An undisclosed number of casualties were reported by Syrian state media agency SANA, citing sources in the Damascus police command.

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Loud explosions were heard over the capital around 12:30 a.m. local time, with SANA reporting that Syrian air defenses “engaged in the skies around Damascus against hostile targets”.

Israel did not immediately issue a statement on the attack. Israeli airstrikes regularly target sites near Damascus. Saturday night’s strike was the first since the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Feb. 6.

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The last attack on Damascus reportedly took place on Jan. 2, when the Syrian army reported that the Israeli military had fired missiles at the Syrian capital’s international airport early on Monday, shutting down the airport and killing two soldiers. Two people were injured.

In recent years, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes against targets in areas controlled by the Syrian government, but the operations have been rarely acknowledged or discussed.

However, Israel has acknowledged that it is targeting the bases of militant groups allied with Iran, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

The Israeli attack comes amid a wider shadow war between Israel and Iran. The attacks on Damascus and Aleppo airports came amid fears they were being used to deliver Iranian weapons to the country. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)