By
Reuters
An Israeli rocket struck a building in the Kafr Sousa neighborhood of central Damascus, Syria, in the immediate vicinity of a large, heavily guarded security complex near Iranian facilities, Sunday morning, killing five people, they said. witnesses and officials.
The rare targeted attack
damaged several buildings
in the densely populated district near Omayyad Square in the heart of the capital, where multi-story security buildings sit within residential areas.
A police official told state media that there were several casualties and injuries.
An Israeli military spokesman declined to comment.
Citing a military source, state media said Israel had carried out air strikes on several areas of the capital shortly after midnight, killing
five civilians and injuring 15 and damaging several residential buildings
.
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"It caused damage to various civilian homes and material damage to various neighborhoods in and around Damascus," the army said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear if the attack was directed at a specific individual.
Syrian security officers inspect the damage in a residential neighborhood after an early morning Israeli airstrike.Omar Sanadiki/AP
Pro-Iranian Hezbollah's top commander, Imad Moughniyeh, was killed in a 2008 bombing in Kafr Sousa, a heavily guarded area where residents say several Iranian security agencies, including a major cultural center, are based.
For nearly a decade, Israel has been carrying out airstrikes
against points of suspected Iran-backed arms transfers and personnel deployments in neighboring Syria.
Israeli officials have rarely acknowledged any responsibility for specific operations.
Iran has expanded its military presence in Syria in recent years and has an established position in most state-controlled areas,
with thousands of members of local militias and paramilitary groups under its command
, Western intelligence sources say.
In recent months, Israel has also intensified
attacks on Syrian airports and airbases
to disrupt Iran's increasing use of supply airlines to deliver weapons to allies in Syria and Lebanon, including the US-backed Hezbollah. Iran in Lebanon.
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The attacks are part of
an escalation
in what has been a low-intensity conflict aimed at curbing Iran's growing entrenchment in Syria, Israeli military experts say.
People check the damage in a residential neighborhood in Damascus after the Israeli airstrike.Omar Sanadiki / AP
Iran's proxy militias, led by Lebanon's Hezbollah, now control vast areas in eastern, southern and northwestern Syria and in various suburbs around the capital.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government has never publicly acknowledged that Iranian forces are operating on its behalf in Syria's civil war, saying Tehran only has military advisers on the ground.