Monitor: 3 killed by Israeli missile strikes in Syria

DAMASCUS/BEIRUT — At least three people were killed by Israeli missile strikes in the south of Syria, a war monitor said on Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the overnight strikes also injured at least 11 people.

The targeted sites are manned by government forces and Iran-linked Hezbollah militias, the Britain-based watchdog added.

The reported Israeli strikes had targeted military posts in the southern province of Sweida and the Damascus suburb of al-Kiswa, according to the observatory.

Two of the three fatalities were from al-Kiswa, it added.

The strikes also destroyed arms depots belonging to Iranian-backed militias and Hezbollah.

The Syrian state news agency SANA reported that Syrian air defenses had Wednesday night partly stopped an Israeli missile attack in the south of the country.

“Our air defense systems repelled them and shot down most of the missiles,” the source said without citing casualty figures.

Residents south of the capital Damascus said sounds of explosions and ambulance sirens were heard overnight across the city, especially near alKiswa.

So far, there has been no official comment from Israel.

On December 30, Israeli airstrikes hit a Syrian government air defense unit in rural Damascus, close to the border with Lebanon, killing one person and injuring three others, the Observatory said.

Israeli strikes in Syria have been seen as an attempt to prevent Iran, one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s main allies, from building up its military influence in the region.

The Observatory, which has been documenting violence in Syria since 2011, said Israel carried out last year a total of 39 airstrikes inside Syria resulting in 217 fatalities.