The Latest: Monitor says death toll at 23 in Israel strikes
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Latest on the situation in the Mideast following latest Israeli airstrikes in Syria (all times local):
4:20 p.m.
A war monitoring group says the death toll from Israeli airstrikes in Syria has risen to 23, including 15 non-Syrians, some of them Iranians.
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition activist group with a network of activists across Syria, released the figures on Wednesday’s airstrikes.
He said the dead included five Syrian troops, 16 Iranian and Iran-backed fighters, and two Syrian civilians.
The Observatory earlier reported that 11 people were killed, including seven foreigners.
Abdurrahman earlier said the Israeli airstrikes targeted several areas in the capital Damascus and its suburbs
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9:25 a.m.
A war monitoring group says Israeli airstrikes in Syria early this morning killed 11 people, including seven non-Syrians who are most likely Iranians.
The figures come from Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition activist group with a network of activists across Syria.
The Observatory says the Israeli airstrikes targeted arms depots belonging to Iran’s elite Quds Force in the Damascus suburbs of Kisweh and Qudsaya.
Abdurrahman added that several other areas were targeted in Wednesday’s strikes, including the Mazzeh airbase in western Damascus where air defense units are stationed.
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7:55 a.m.
Syrian state media say two civilians have been killed and several others wounded in a series of Israeli airstrikes near the capital, Damascus.
The state SANA news agency is reporting that Syrian air defenses destroyed most of the missiles before they reached their targets in Wednesday’s attack.
The report adds that however, two people were killed by shrapnel from an Israeli missile that hit a house in the town of Saasaa, southwest of Damascus.
SANA says the house was destroyed.
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5:55 a.m.
The Israeli military says it has carried out a “wide-scale” strike on Iranian targets in Syria following a rocket attack on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights the previous day.
In a statement early Wednesday, the military says fighter jets struck dozens of targets, including surface-to-air missiles, weapons warehouses and military bases.
The military said it also struck positions of the Syrian army after a Syrian air defense missile was fired.
Israel said the rocket attack on the Golan Heights was “further clear proof of the purpose of Iranian entrenchment in Syria.”
