An Israeli Air Force F-15 fighter jet flies during an aerial demonstration. (photo credit: AMIR COHEN – REUTERS)-15
The death toll from the April 27 Israeli strikes on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, has reportedly risen to six.
The Israeli strikes targeted a number of military positions. According to unverified reports, the targets of the strikes included Damascus International Airport and a base of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) elite 4th Division.
Initially, a Syrian military official acknowledged that four service members of the SAA were killed in the Israeli attack. One of the casualties was high-ranking officer, Colonel Rifaat Ali Saleh. The other three casualties were identified as Privates Osama Hamdan, Ramah Hammoud and Jafar al-Hajj.
In the afternoon of April 27, two more casualties were reported by Syrian pro-government sources, Privates Mohamad al-Alloush and Hani al-Ali.
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This was the third Israeli attack on Syria in less than a month. On April 9, a series of Israeli airstrikes hit a research center, a weapons factory, a military base and a suspected air-defense site in the outskirts of the town of Masyaf in the western Hama countryside. On April 14, another wave of Israeli airstrikes targeted a position of the SAA located near the town of Kafr Qouq in the western countryside of Damascus.
The recent attacks on Syria were all a part of Israel’s “War-Between-Wars” military campaign, which is meant to hinder Iranian entrenchment in the war-torn country and prevent the transfer of advanced Iranian-made weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Syria condemned the new Israeli attack on Damascus in a letter to the United Nations Security Council, maintaining its right to respond.
