Syria: 15 killed as a result of a violent Israeli bombardment that targeted residential neighborhoods in Damascus

15 people, including at least two women, were killed in an Israeli bombardment that hit a residential neighborhood in Damascus after midnight on Saturday.

The Syrian Ministry of Defense announced that at least 5 people killed, including a soldier, and more 15 were wounded.

This is the first time Israel strikes residential neighborhoods in Damascus, as it usually used to strike airports and military sites on the outskirts of the capital, or at countryside, among other areas.

The Israeli attack mainly targeted the Kafr Souseh neighborhood in southwest Damascus, which is considered one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in the Syrian capital and contains military, intelligence and security branches.

So far, it was reported that 15 people were killed, mainly civilians, including two women.

Some sources in the Syrian capital said that the Israeli struck targeted area that includes an Iranian cultural institute.

The official Syrian News Agency, SANA, later quoted a military source as saying, “The aggression led, as a preliminary outcome, to the death of five martyrs, including a soldier, and the wounding of 15 civilians, including critical cases, and it also led to the destruction of a number of civilian homes and material damage to a number of neighborhoods in and around Damascus”.

The Syrian military source said, “At 00:22 AM, Sunday, (21:22 GMT), the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack with bursts of missiles from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting some points in the city of Damascus and its surroundings, including residential neighborhoods inhabited by civilians, as our air defenses intercepted the aggression’s missiles and shot down most of them”.

Agence France-Presse correspondents in Damascus reported hearing loud explosions, followed by the sound of ambulances rushing to the target site.

The Syrian News Agency posted a video showing a large hole in front of the ten-storey building, with parts of its front facade cracked.

So far, there has been no official comment from Israel, which has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria over the past years, targeting Syrian army sites and Iranian and Hezbollah targets, including weapons and ammunition depots in separate areas.

At the beginning of January, four people, including two Syrian soldiers, were killed as a result of an Israeli bombing that targeted Damascus International Airport and put it out of service for hours, marking the second time that it was out of service since June 2022, when an Israeli bombing led to the suspension of all flights for about two weeks.

The Israeli bombing is the first since the devastating earthquake that struck Syria, centered on Türkiye on February 6, killing more than 3,600 people out of more than 41,000 in the two countries.