Damascus, July 17, (dpa/GNA) – Israeli warplanes carried out a series of airstrikes on Wednesday evening, targeting several locations in and around the southern Syrian city of Daraa, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor.
The strikes focused on the area surrounding the Daraa governor’s palace, the Military Intelligence Branch, and the Civil Registry building in the city, it said.
Initial reports indicate significant damage to the targeted structures, though no casualties have been confirmed so far.
The airstrikes reportedly also hit military positions affiliated with the Syrian government and its allied militias.
The strikes come amid expanding Israeli military action across Syrian territory, as Israel vows to protect Druze civilians amid brutal sectarian violence in Syria’s southern Sweida region.
In rural Damascus governorate, Israeli jets also bombed the Kisweh area, south of the capital, Damascus. There have been no reports of casualties so far.
Earlier, Israeli aircraft targeted the entrances of the General Staff headquarters and the Ministry of Defence in central Damascus, causing widespread damage. The fate of Syria’s top-ranking military and political leaders remains unclear. Another strike hit near the presidential palace.
One person was killed and 18 injured in the Israeli strikes on Damascus, the Syrian Health Ministry said.
In Sweida governorate, Israeli airstrikes targeted concentrations of Syrian Ministry of Defence personnel, particularly military convoys and vehicles near the villages of Ulgha and al-Mujaymir, as well as regime forces inside Sweida city itself.
Sources of the British-based war monitor said that three senior officers from the Ministry of Defence were killed in the strikes on al-Mujaymir.
These latest deaths bring the total confirmed Ministry of Defense fatalities from Israeli strikes in Sweida to at least 10, with the number likely to rise.
GNA