Witnesses and officials said an Israeli rocket attack struck a building near a large, heavily guarded security compound near Iranian installations in the Kafr Sousa neighborhood of central Damascus early Sunday, killing five people.
The rare, targeted attack damaged several buildings in the densely populated district near Omayyad Square in the heart of the capital, where multi-storey security buildings are located within residential areas.
A police officer told state media that there were many casualties and injuries.
An Israeli military spokesman declined to comment.
Citing a military source, state media said Israel carried out airstrikes targeting several areas in the capital shortly after midnight, killing five and injuring 15 among civilians, and several Residential buildings were damaged.
“This has caused damage to many civilian houses and material damage in many areas of Damascus and its surrounding areas,” the army said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear whether the strike was aimed at any specific individual.
Imad Moghniyeh, a top commander of pro-Iranian Hezbollah, was killed in a 2008 bombing in Kafr Sousa, a heavily policed ​​area where residents say several Iranian security agencies are located, including a major cultural center.
For nearly a decade, Israel has been conducting airstrikes against suspected Iranian-sponsored arms transfers and personnel deployments in Syria. Israeli officials have rarely accepted responsibility for specific actions.
Western intelligence sources say Iran has expanded its military presence in Syria in recent years and has made inroads into most state-controlled areas, with thousands of members of militias and local paramilitary groups.
Israel has stepped up attacks on Syrian air bases and air bases in recent months to disrupt Iran’s growing use of air supply lines to deliver weapons to allies in Syria and Lebanon, including Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Israeli military experts say the strikes are part of an escalation of the low-intensity conflict aimed at slowing Iran’s growing incursion into Syria.
Iran’s proxy militias, led by Lebanon’s Hezbollah, now hold sway over vast swaths of eastern, southern and northwestern Syria and many suburbs around the capital.
The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has never publicly acknowledged that Iranian forces act on his behalf in Syria’s civil war, saying Tehran only has military advisers on the ground.
