Two Killed And several Injured in Israeli Airstrikes in Syria

Two civilians were killed and three injured in Israeli airstrikes in Syria on November 20, Tuesday. The airstrikes targeted areas on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus, in what the Israeli military claimed were retaliatory attacks in response to four rockets launched from Syria towards the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan heights on Monday. The rockets were intercepted by the Israeli air defense system.

The Syrian air defense system shot down most of the Israeli missiles before they could strike their targets. However, one of the missiles completely destroyed a residential building in the town of Sasa, southwest of Damascus, killing two civilians and injuring several others. Another missile attack on a residential building in Qudsaya, west of Damascus, also caused major damage and injured a girl inside the building. According to reports, the injured were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment.

An Israeli military spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Avichay Adraee, said on twitter that “warplanes raided dozens of military targets belonging to the Iranian Quds Force and the Syrian Army inside Syrian territory, including surface-to-air missiles, headquarters, weapons depots and military bases, in response to yesterday’s rocket fire from Syria towards Israel.”

The elite Iranian Quds force is the overseas arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria against supposed Iranian and Syrian targets in what it describes as attempts to prevent Iran from establishing and maintaining a permanent military presence in Syria.