Israeli airstrikes early Friday targeted several sites near Syria's capital city of Damascus, aiming at sites with militia units reportedly backed by Iran and pointing to a widening war in the region.
The airstrikes reportedly killed two pro-Iranian fighters at the city of Sayyidah Zaynab, located on the southern outskirts of Damascus while conducting raids targeting a Hezbollah arms depot and other sites, reports The Times of Israel.
Syria's state news agency SANA, citing sources in the military, earlier reported "material damage" from the strikes.
"At around 2:25 a.m. (1125 GMT), the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial aggression from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights targeting several positions in the vicinity of Damascus," SANA said, according to the report from The Times.
The agency's source did not provide details about the targets but said the Syrian air defense intercepted some Israeli missiles.
The Syrian media also posted footage on social media platform X, showing a structure burning along with claims that the country's military was able to block some of the airstrikes, reports The Jerusalem Post.
OSINTdefender, an online intelligence monitoring site, reported on X that "at least 8 Missiles launched by Israeli Aircraft are reported to have struck several positions of Iranian-backed forces near the Syrian capital city of Damascus," and showed a photograph of one of the strikes.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has confirmed that "two foreign fighters" from pro-Iran groups were killed, reports The Times.
The Observatory said that the airstrikes "destroyed an arms depot belonging to Hezbollah," the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group allied with the Syrian regime. It added that the bombs hit along the road leading to the Damascus International Airport and targeted "sites linked to Hezbollah and pro-Iran militias" near the facility.
Israeli airstrikes have been targeting sites in the Damascus area, southern Syria, and Aleppo since the war between Israel and Hamas started in October, The Jerusalem Post reports.
The Israel Defense Forces has taken responsibility for some of the airstrikes targeting southern Syria but did not respond to other reports coming from Syrian media sources.
The IDF, though, reports that several rockets were also fired from Syria toward Israel in recent weeks, with a drone that hit a school in Eilat being launched from an Iran-backed militia group located in Syria.
The Syrian state media also reported last week that there were casualties in the Sayyida Zeniab area after Israeli airstrikes, and two weeks ago said Israel attacks killed at least two workers at the Damascus International Airport.
Iraq's al-Harir airbase hosting U.S. and international forces was also targeted with an armed drone, Iraqi Kurdistan's counter-terrorism service said in a statement Friday, according to Reuters.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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