[IsraelTimes] Six Syrian soldiers were killed in Israeli drone strikes in the Damascus countryside, state-run El Ekhbariya TV reports.
A Syrian defense ministry official, who earlier put the death toll at three, told AFP on condition of anonymity that “an Israeli drone targeted one of the military buildings of the 44th division of the Syrian army in Kiswah, west of Damascus.”
There was no immediate statement from the Israel Defense Forces.
Syria and Israel are engaged in US-mediated talks on easing tensions in southern Syria, with Damascus seeking a security deal that could open the door to wider political negotiations.
On Tuesday, the official SANA news agency reported that “a young man was killed in an Israeli strike on a home in the village of Taranja,” on the formerly Syria-controlled side of the armistice line on the Golan Heights.
Syria condemned “the recent Israeli attacks on its territory, which resulted in the martyrdom of a young man,” the foreign ministry said.
It also condemned what it said was an incursion on Monday by the IDF forces into a town in the Quneitra countryside, their “arrest campaigns against civilians,” and their “announcement of the continuation of their illegal presence on the summit of Mount Hermon and the buffer zone.”
“These aggressive practices constitute a flagrant violation of the UN Charter, international law, and relevant Security Council resolutions, and constitute a direct threat to peace and security in the region.”
The IDF has been deployed to nine posts inside southern Syria since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December 2024, mostly within a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the border between the countries.
Troops have been operating in areas up to around 15 kilometers (some nine miles) deep into Syria, including Beit Jinn, aiming to capture weapons that Israel says could pose a threat to the country if they fall into the hands of “hostile forces,” as Iranian-backed groups did during Assad’s rule.
It distrusts Syria’s new government, which is led by former jihadists.
Amid the ongoing US-mediated talks between Jerusalem and Damascus, Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed Tuesday that IDF troops would remain in Syria to defend the north, saying Israel’s need to maintain a presence there is a “central lesson from the events of October 7.”
|
