Israel launched powerful air strikes in Damascus yesterday, blowing up part of the defence ministry and hitting near the presidential palace as it vowed to destroy government forces attacking Druze in southern Syria and demanded they withdraw.
The attacks marked a significant Israeli escalation against the administration of interim President Ahmed Al Sharaa and came despite his warming ties with the US and his administration’s evolving security contacts with Israel.
Israel has said it won’t let Syria’s new rulers move forces into southern Syria and vowed to shield the area’s Druze community from attack, encouraged by calls from Israel’s own Druze minority.
The US State Department called on Syria to pull back its troops to allow for de-escalation. Syria called for the United Nations Security Council to ‘address the consequences of the Israeli aggression’, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
Scores of people have been killed this week in violence in and around the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, pitting fighters from the Druze minority against government security forces and members of Bedouin tribes.
Reuters reporters heard warplanes swoop low over the capital and unleash a series of massive strikes mid-afternoon. Columns of smoke rose from the area near the defence ministry. A section of the building
A Syrian medical source said the strikes on the defence ministry killed five members of the security forces.
An Israeli military official said the military struck the entrance to the military headquarters in Damascus and a target near the presidential palace.
Syrian government troops were dispatched to the Sweida region on Monday to quell fighting between Druze fighters and Bedouin armed men.
New clashes broke out in the city, according to a Reuters witness, after the Syrian interior ministry and a Druze leader, Shaikh Yousef Jarbou, said a ceasefire had been reached. A ceasefire that was announced on Tuesday collapsed.
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