Israeli Airstrikes Hit Several Sites Around Damascus

State media: Attacks caused physical damage only

For the second time this week, Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes against several sites in the Syrian capital city of Damascus. Syrian state media reported that some of the missiles were intercepted by air defense.

Sites in the city and to the west of the city were hit, and state media reported physical damage only, with no sign as of yet of any casualties from the attacks.

Exactly what was being targeted, as always, isn’t very clear, though Israel generally presents whatever they are attacking as Iranian, and that is often broadly defined to include Shi’ites in general. Sites in use by Shi’ite militias, in particular Lebanon’s Hezbollah, are often the targets.

Israel usually declines official comment on its attacks, saying they have a policy not to comment on reports of strikes coming from overseas. Israeli media, however, will tend to offer narratives in keeping with the targeting of Shi’ites.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.