The Syrian army said on Sunday that Israeli missiles launched from the Golan Heights hit sites near Damascus that regional intelligences say targeted Iranian militias’ stronghold near Syria’s holiest Shi’ite Muslim shrine.
Syria’s air defenses shot down some of the missiles that targeted the countryside around the capital in an incident that injured two soldiers, the army said in a statement. It did not give any details on the location of the incident.
Since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians and soldiers, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iranian-backed militia targets in Syria and also struck Syrian army air defenses and some Syrian forces.
The Israel Defence Force did not immediately comment on the attack.
Presence of pro-Iranian militia fighters in the region
Two regional intelligence sources said the strikes hit an outpost of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah group in the Sayeda Zainab neighborhood of southern Damascus, the site of Syria’s holiest major Shi’ite shrine.
They say its main headquarters are in that neighborhood, where it has a heavy presence and a string of underground bases.
The area has attracted thousands of pro-Iranian militia fighters from Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan who came to Syria to fight alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s troops.
Iran’s proxy militias led by Lebanon’s Hezbollah now hold sway in vast areas of Syria, including in several suburbs around Damascus.
Israel has long said its strikes in Syria were aimed at eroding Tehran’s military presence, which Western intelligence sources say has expanded in recent years in the country.
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