Beijing, January 30 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian Ministry of Defense said on January 29 that Israel attacked several locations south of Damascus, the Syrian capital, on the same day, causing many casualties and damage to some facilities. The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack killed at least eight people.
According to a statement issued by the Syrian Ministry of Defense, at around 13 o'clock local time, Israel launched airstrikes from the Golan Heights it occupies to several locations south of Damascus. The statement did not specify the situation of personnel and the exact location of the airstrike. According to AFP, the statement, posted on social media, previously said that the attack had killed "multiple Iranian advisers", but later deleted the reference to Iranian advisers.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, three Israeli missiles hit the Saida Zainab area south of Damascus, killing at least eight people. Among the dead were two Syrians, including security personnel of an Iranian officer, and two members of the Lebanese Allah party.
According to Iran's Tasnim news agency, Israel "attacked an Iranian advisory center in the Zainab area of Saida." However, Iran's ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, denied the attack on the advisory center and any Iranian citizens or advisers killed in the attack.
Lebanese Allah confirmed on the evening of the 29th that two Allah members died in Israeli air strikes, but did not disclose more details.
This is the scene of an airstrike filmed in Damascus, Syria, on January 20. Israeli airstrikes on a multi-storey residential building in the Maizai area of western Damascus on the same day killed several people, including Iranian advisers, according to multiple Syrian** reports. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Amar Safar Jalani) After the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the Israeli army repeatedly attacked targets in Syria under the pretext of striking Iranian military facilities. The Israeli side rarely mentions or acknowledges such air strikes. Both Syria and Iran** denied that Iran has troops stationed in Syria, saying that Iran only sent military advisers at the invitation of Syria**.
Affected by the new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict, instability in the Middle East and surrounding areas has intensified in recent times. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) reported that Saeed Razi Mousavi, a senior commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps who served as a military adviser in Syria, was killed in an Israeli "missile attack" on Syria on December 25 last year, and four other military advisers were killed this month in an Israeli airstrike on Damascus. In addition, the city of Kerman in Iran was attacked by the extremist organization "Islamic State" on the 3rd of this month, and a large number of people **.
Iran then launched a cross-border missile attack. Iran said the attacks targeted "terrorist groups" in Syria and other countries and Israeli intelligence agencies in Iraq, but the move has sparked resentment among neighboring countries and heightened concerns about the spreading spillover effects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Liu Xi).