Syria accuses Israel of ‘heinous aggression’ after airstrikes

Syria has accused Israel of “heinous aggression” after alleged Israeli airstrikes killed several civilians.

“Israeli authorities are increasingly practising state terrorism,” the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the official Sana news agency on Tuesday. “The latest heinous Israeli aggression falls within the framework of ongoing Israeli attempts to prolong the crisis in Syria,” it added.

Strikes south of Damascus and in Homs province near the border with Lebanon overnight on Sunday killed at least 15 people, Sana and the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, including at least six civilians, among them three children.

It was not immediately clear if the civilians died in the strikes or their aftermath, the Observatory said.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes inside Syria since 2015 targeting supply routes and infrastructure such as the weapons depots of President Bashar al-Assad’s Iranian and Hezbollah allies. Civilian deaths are relatively rare, however, leading to the furious response from Damascus on Tuesday.

In keeping with a policy of ambiguity over its activities in Syria, Israeli officials declined to comment on Sunday’s alleged strikes.

Syria’s foreign ministry also filed a complaint to the United Nations security council over the attack, demanding accountability, according to Sana. Israel’s “dangerous and hostile” actions would not have been possible without the support of its ally the United States, which protects it on the security council, the complaint said.

The Syrian government itself has been accused by the UN of multiple war crimes, including indiscriminate bombing of rebel-held civilian areas and the use of chemical weapons.

Sunday’s strikes targeted an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps headquarters and research centre in a southern suburb of Damascus as well as a military airport and ammunition warehouses near Homs operated by Hezbollah forces, the Observatory said.

In response to the attacks, Damascus fired anti-aircraft missiles at suspected Israeli planes, but one stray rocket accidentally hit Northern Cyprus, sparking a fire on the mountainside above Nicosia.

The incident marked the first time Cyprus has been caught up in military operations in Syria’s eight-year-old civil war.

Source: Syria accuses Israel of ‘heinous aggression’ after airstrikes | World news | The Guardian