Syria: 3 soldiers killed in Israeli airstrikes near Damascus & Tartus

Three Syrian soldiers were killed and three others sustained injuries after alleged Israel airstrikes targeted sites near Tartus on the coast of Syria and near Damascus last evening. As per Syrian state news agency SANA, "Israeli enemy carried out at 20:50 (local time) today a missile aggression, targeting some points in Damascus countryside using southeastern Beirut’s air space coincided with another one targeting some points southern Tartous using the Mediterranean air space."  

The news agency further said that Syrian air defence had engaged with the Israeli strikes and shot down several missiles. As a result of these hostile actions, three troops were killed, three more were injured, and material losses have been recorded. 

The airstrikes on Syria come just a few days after Syrian media claimed that three people were hurt when Israeli tanks attacked observation posts in the Quneitra region of Syria, which is close to Israel's border. As reported by the Jerusalem Post, Opposition-affiliated media claimed that the observation posts belonged to Hezbollah.

Israel's airstrikes on Syria

In July, Israeli airstrikes against Syrian military positions near Damascus took the lives of three personnel and injured another seven. According to a military official cited by Syrian state media, the missiles were launched from Syria's Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The Syrian army was able to shoot down part of the missiles using air defence missiles, the official added. 

Earlier in July, Israeli aircraft struck a Syrian coastal community close to the Lebanon border, according to Syrian official media. Two individuals were injured, one of them was a woman. This assault was considered to be the first since an Israeli bombing on the international airport in Damascus, the capital of Syria, on June 10 left the main runway impassable and seriously damaged the airport's infrastructure. After two weeks of closure, flights resumed on June 23. 

Besides this, Israeli jets reportedly launched missiles against a number of poultry farms in the town of Hamidiyeh, which is located south of Tartus, according to state news agency SANA. A few miles north of the Lebanon border is where the incident took place. 

It is pertinent to note that over the course of Syria's civil war, Israel has launched hundreds of attacks on targets inside of areas that are under government control, although it seldom acknowledges or recognises these actions. Israel, however, has acknowledged that it strikes the facilities of militias that are affiliated with Iran, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, which supports Syrian President Bashar Assad's military. 

(Image: AP)