An Israeli rocket strike has hit a building in central Damascus in southwestern Syria near a large, heavily guarded security complex close to Iranian installations, killing five people, witnesses and officials say.
The rare, targeted strike early on Sunday damaged several buildings in the densely populated Kafr Sousa neighbourhood, close to Omayyad square in the heart of the capital, where multi-storey security buildings are located within residential areas.
A police official said on state media there were several casualties and injured.
An Israeli military representative declined to comment.
Citing a military source, state media said Israel had carried out air strikes targeting several areas in the capital shortly after midnight, causing five deaths and 15 injuries among civilians, and damage to several residential buildings.
“It caused damage to several civilian homes and material damage to a number of neighbourhoods in Damascus and its vicinity,” the army said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear whether the strike was aimed at a specific individual.
Pro-Iran Hezbollah’s top commander Imad Moughniyeh was killed in 2008 in a bombing in Kafr Sousa, a heavily policed area where residents say several Iranian security agencies are located, including a major cultural centre.
Read the article by Suleiman Al-Khalidi in The Canberra Times (AAP).