Two Hezbollah Fighters Die in Israeli Strikes on Syria

On Monday, Israeli airstrikes in Syria resulted in the death of eight individuals, including those aligned with pro-Iranian groups, as reported by a war monitoring organization. These recent strikes are part of a series of attacks targeting factions supportive of Tehran within Syria.

Rami Abdel Rahman, who leads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, informed AFP that three Israeli missiles hit a facility operated by Hezbollah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in the Sayyida Zeinab district, located south of Damascus. This attack led to the death of at least eight people. Among the deceased were two Syrians, one of whom was a security aide to an Iranian officer, and two Hezbollah members. The report did not clarify if any civilians were among the casualties.

The Syrian Defense Ministry also acknowledged an “air attack” that it attributed to Israel, stating that the strikes, which occurred around 1:00 pm (1000 GMT), targeted various sites south of Damascus. Initially, the Ministry’s statement on social media mentioned the death of several Iranian advisors, but this reference was later removed.

Conversely, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that Israel had targeted an Iranian advisory center in the Sayyida Zeinab area. However, Hossein Akbari, the Iranian ambassador to Syria, refuted these claims on social media, denying that an advisory center was hit or that any Iranian citizens or advisors were killed in the attack.

Hezbollah, in a late Monday statement, announced the death of two of its fighters “on the road to Jerusalem”, a term it uses for members killed in Israeli strikes, without providing additional details.

A similar airstrike in Sayyida Zeinab in late December, which was also attributed to Israel, resulted in the death of a high-ranking Iranian general, Razi Moussavi. Moussavi was the most senior Iranian general killed outside Iran since the U.S. drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020 that eliminated Qasem Soleimani, the chief of the elite Quds Force.

Additionally, on January 20, an airstrike in the Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus, aimed at the Revolutionary Guards’ Syrian spy chief, killed 13 people, as reported by the Observatory. The Guards acknowledged the loss of five members in that attack, blaming Israel, their regional adversary.

Throughout Syria’s decade-long civil war, Israel has conducted numerous airstrikes, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Syrian military positions. The frequency of these attacks has increased since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7. While Israel seldom comments on individual strikes in Syria, it has consistently stated its intention to prevent Iran, a supporter of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, from establishing a foothold in the region.

Since 2011, Syria has been engulfed in a devastating conflict that has resulted in over half a million deaths and the displacement of millions. Iran maintains that its military presence in Syria is solely in an advisory capacity, at the request of the Damascus government.