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21-01-2024
DAMASCUS: Explosions have hit Damascus, the Syrian capital, according to local reports.
There were also “plumes of smoke” seen across different sites in the city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Videos, which the media has not verified, showed a large cloud of smoke and buildings destroyed.
It comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East since the Israel-Gaza war.
There were reports of casualties in the explosion, which is understood to have taken place the Mazzeh neighborhood, south-west Damascus.
The Mazzeh area is home to a military airport, as well as the UN headquarters in Damascus, embassies and restaurants.
A resident told media that they saw “explosions” in the western Mazzeh area and “a large cloud of smoke”.
“The sound was similar to a missile explosion, and minutes later I heard the sound of ambulances,” he added.
The Middle East has been on heightened alert since 7 October, when Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,300 people, mainly civilians, and taking 240 hostages back to Gaza. More than 132 hostages are thought to still be held in the territory.
More than 24,900 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its military response, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Israel says its ground and air operation in Gaza is aimed at destroying Hamas.
The conflict has raised concerns about a wider war spreading around the region, particularly between fierce rivals Israel and Iran.
Tehran has a host of supportive groups operating in the Middle East, including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. It also supports groups in Iraq and Syria.
Last month a suspected Israeli air strike just outside Damascus killed a senior commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
On 25 December, a senior Iranian commander was killed in a suspected Israeli strike in Syria. Iranian media say.
Seyyed Razi Mousavi was “an experienced military adviser” to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said.
It says he was killed in an air strike on the Sayyida Zeinab area south-east of Damascus.
Israel has carried out military strikes in Syria for years, against what it says are Iran-linked targets.
The strikes have increased in frequency over the past months following Hamas’ attack on 7 October.
Iranian forces have been present in Syria since the early stages of the Syrian civil war, where they helped support the regime of President Bashar al-Assad against widespread rebellion to his rule. (Int’l News Desk)
