The Iranian Revolutionary Guard said, in a statement, on Friday, that one of its advisors was killed in the attack that targeted military sites in the southwest of the Syrian capital, Damascus, and the official Syrian news agency, “SANA”, accused Israel of launching it.
Iranian media quoted a statement stating that “Milad Heidari, one of the military advisors and officers of the Revolutionary Guards, was killed in the Zionist regime’s criminal attack on the vicinity of Damascus at dawn today.”
This is the second Israeli strike near Damascus in less than 24 hours, as two Syrian soldiers were wounded in Israeli bombing on Wednesday night near the Syrian capital.
On Friday, SANA quoted a military source as saying, “At exactly 12:17 a.m. today (21:17 GMT), the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack with bursts of missiles from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting a site in Damascus countryside.”
The source added, “Our air defense forces intercepted the aggression’s missiles and shot down a number of them,” noting that “the aggression led to some material losses.”
Earlier, SANA had indicated that “explosions were heard on Friday following midnight in the vicinity of Damascus.” According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, “Israeli missiles” targeted military sites of the Syrian regime and pro-Iranian forces in southwest Damascus.
The Observatory added that the missiles destroyed a weapons and ammunition depot, without mentioning any casualties. An AFP correspondent reported hearing a loud explosion.
According to AFP, Israel carried out six air strikes in Syria this month, according to the Observatory. Knowing that, during the past years, it launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria, targeting sites of the Syrian army, Iranian targets, and others of the Lebanese Hezbollah, including weapons and ammunition depots in separate areas.
Israel rarely confirms carrying out strikes in Syria, but it repeats that it will continue to confront what it describes as Iran’s attempts to consolidate its military presence in Syria.
Last week, Aleppo International Airport in northern Syria was bombed, the second in March. According to the Observatory, it targeted a weapons depot of pro-Tehran groups, which led to the vital facility being out of service for two days.
On the seventh of March, a similar bombing put the airport out of service for days and killed three people, including a Syrian officer, according to the Observatory.
Syria has been witnessing a bloody conflict since 2011, which has killed regarding half a million people, caused massive damage to infrastructure, and led to the displacement of millions of people inside and outside the country.