KISWEH, Syria: In the Syrian region of Kisweh, southwest of Damascus, residents jolted awake by Israeli strikes voiced their fears Wednesday of a fresh escalation after similar attacks had appeared to taper off in recent weeks.
Israel said it had targeted military sites containing weapons in the Tuesday night raids, which came just days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded the demilitarization of Syria’s south.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least two people were killed at the headquarters of a military unit in Kisweh, while other raids struck military sites in Daraa province to the south.
“We heard successive strikes followed by explosions. The sky lit up, then we saw tongues of flame rising,” said Ahmed Mohammed, who works at a service station near the military site in Kisweh.
“We fear the resumption of Israeli strikes and an Israeli incursion.”
Members of the new Syrian government’s armed forces occupied the site, located in a large field.
Aerial photos taken by AFP showed 20 tanks at the site, three of them blackened by flames.
The owner of a nearby car dealership, who gave his name as Rayan, said most of the tanks had been moved there after they were abandoned by the former Syrian armed forces around the time of the fall of president Bashar Assad.
“When the missiles fell, the houses and windows shook,” he said, adding that a drone had been filming in the area about an hour beforehand.
After the strikes, the Israeli military said that military assets in southern Syria “pose a threat to the citizens of Israel,” adding it would “continue to operate in order to remove” such threats.
The nighttime raids came hours after demonstrations in several Syrian cities in response to Netanyahu’s call on Sunday for the “complete demilitarization” of the country’s south.
Following the toppling of Assad in December, Israel carried out a wave of hundreds of strikes against positions formerly held by his military, while also sending troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone that has separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the strategic Golan Heights since 1974.
“While the strikes were previously focused on border crossings and abandoned weapons warehouses, they are now directly targeting vital military sites and strategic hills,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Netanyahu, he added, was starting “to put his threats into action.”
Syria’s new authorities have condemned Israel’s strikes in their territory, but the country’s interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa has also said it is too exhausted by years of civil war to undertake any new conflicts.
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Residents of south Syria fear Israeli escalation after strikes
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Residents of south Syria fear Israeli escalation after strikes
New strikes light up the night in Tehran as Israel vows ‘many surprises’
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: The Iran war exploded further late Saturday as pillars of flame rose above an oil storage facility in Tehran, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised “many surprises” for the next phase of the week-old conflict.
Israel’s military confirmed that it hit the fuel storage facilities in Tehran. Associated Press video showed the horizon glowing against the night sky above Tehran.
It appeared to be the first time a civil industrial facility has been targeted in the war. State media blamed “an attack from the US and the Zionist regime” at the facility that supplies the capital and neighboring provinces in the north.
Meanwhile, Israeli air strikes killed eight people in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Health Ministry said, and local media reported that an Israeli drone hit a hotel in Beirut, killing four and wounding 10 others.
The Israeli military said early Sunday that it targeted commanders of the Lebanese branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force in Beirut. The deaths come on top of at least 47 others killed in Saturday’s Israeli strikes.
Strikes and drone attacks in Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia also caused havoc and some additional deaths.
Earlier in the day, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian apologized for attacks on “neighboring countries,” even as his country’s missiles and drones flew toward Gulf Arab states and hard-liners asserted that Tehran’s war strategy would not change.
A rift between politicians looking to de-escalate the war and others committed to battling the United States and Israel could complicate any diplomatic efforts. Conflicting Iranian statements came from two of the three members of the leadership council overseeing Iran since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the war’s opening airstrikes.
Pezeshkian, who is a member of the council, also dismissed US President Donald Trump’s call for Tehran to surrender unconditionally, saying: “That’s a dream that they should take to their grave.”
Trump threatened that Iran would be “hit very hard” and more “areas and groups of people” would become targets, without elaborating. Already, the conflict has rattled global markets and left Iran’s leadership weakened by hundreds of Israeli and American airstrikes.
“We’re not looking to settle,” Trump told reporters Saturday aboard Air Force One. “They’d like to settle. We’re not looking to settle.”
He described the ongoing US operations in Iran as an “excursion” and said issues such as rising gas prices and the safety of Americans would improve once the conflict ends.
Iran makes varying statements on attacks
Pezeshkian’s message, seemingly recorded in a hurry, underlined the limited powers exercised by the theocracy’s leaders over the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which controls the hundreds of ballistic missiles targeting Israel and other countries. It answered only to Khamenei and appears to be picking its own targets.
Pezeshkian’s statement said Iran’s leadership council had been in touch with the armed forces and “from now on, they should not attack neighboring countries or fire missiles at them, unless we are attacked by those countries. I think we should solve this through diplomacy.”
The US strikes have not come from the Gulf Arab governments under attack, but from US bases and vessels in the region.
But hard-line judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, another member of the three-man leadership council, suggested that war strategy will not change.
“The geography of some countries in the region — both overtly and covertly — is in the hands of the enemy, and those points are used against our country in acts of aggression. Intense attacks on these targets will continue,” he posted on X.
As long as US bases are present in the region, “the countries will not enjoy peace,” Iran’s Parliament speaker and a former Revolutionary Guard general, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on X.
Iran’s UN mission later suggested, without offering evidence, that strikes on nonmilitary sites “may have resulted from interception by US electronic defense systems.”
Late Saturday, top Iranian security official Ali Larijani asserted in an address carried by state media that “our leaders are united on this issue and have no disagreements with one another.”
He also said the leadership council has requested that “arrangements be made” to convene the Assembly of Experts to choose the next supreme leader, but did not say when.
Trump says the Kurds won’t be involved
Trump said he has ruled out having Kurds join the war, even though Kurdish fighters in the region are willing to assist in efforts to topple the Iranian government.
“The war is complicated enough without having ... the Kurds involved,” Trump told reporters.
Days ago, Kurdish officials told the AP that Kurdish-Iranian dissident groups based in northern Iraq were preparing for a potential cross-border military operation in Iran and that the US had asked Iraqi Kurds to support them.
The US and Israel have targeted Iran’s military capabilities, leadership and nuclear program. The war’s stated goals and timelines have repeatedly shifted as the US has at times suggested it seeks to topple Iran’s government or elevate new leadership.
The fighting has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 290 in Lebanon and 11 in Israel, according to officials in those countries. Six US troops have been killed.
Incoming missiles from Iran had people heading to bomb shelters again across Israel, with no reports of casualties.
Missile lands at US Embassy compound in Iraq
Three Iraqi security officials said a missile landed on the helicopter landing pad in the US Embassy complex in Baghdad. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. An embassy spokesperson declined to comment. There were no reports of casualties.
It was the first reported strike to land in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone since the Iran war began. Iran and allied Iraqi militias have launched dozens of attacks on US military bases and other facilities in Iraq since then.
Iraq’s caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani called the embassy attack a “terrorist act” carried out by “rogue groups.”
Strikes target other Gulf countries
US allies in the Gulf have said the Trump administration did not give them adequate time to prepare for the war.
Hours after Pezeshkian’s apology, the United Arab Emirates said debris from an aerial interception fell onto a vehicle and killed a driver. Four people have now been killed in the UAE since the war began. Authorities have said all were foreign nationals.
Sirens sounded earlier Saturday in Bahrain as Iran targeted the island kingdom. Saudi Arabia said it destroyed drones headed toward its vast Shaybah oil field and shot down a ballistic missile launched toward Prince Sultan Air Base, which hosts US forces.
In Kuwait, authorities said a wave of drones targeted critical infrastructure, including fuel tanks at Kuwait International Airport and a government building in Kuwait City. At least two people were killed by strikes in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
___
Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, and Magdy from Cairo, Egypt. Associated Press journalists Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad, Amir-Hussein Radjy in Cairo, Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem, Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, and Aamer Madhani in Doral, Florida, contributed reporting.
Israel’s military confirmed that it hit the fuel storage facilities in Tehran. Associated Press video showed the horizon glowing against the night sky above Tehran.
It appeared to be the first time a civil industrial facility has been targeted in the war. State media blamed “an attack from the US and the Zionist regime” at the facility that supplies the capital and neighboring provinces in the north.
Meanwhile, Israeli air strikes killed eight people in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Health Ministry said, and local media reported that an Israeli drone hit a hotel in Beirut, killing four and wounding 10 others.
The Israeli military said early Sunday that it targeted commanders of the Lebanese branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force in Beirut. The deaths come on top of at least 47 others killed in Saturday’s Israeli strikes.
Strikes and drone attacks in Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia also caused havoc and some additional deaths.
Earlier in the day, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian apologized for attacks on “neighboring countries,” even as his country’s missiles and drones flew toward Gulf Arab states and hard-liners asserted that Tehran’s war strategy would not change.
A rift between politicians looking to de-escalate the war and others committed to battling the United States and Israel could complicate any diplomatic efforts. Conflicting Iranian statements came from two of the three members of the leadership council overseeing Iran since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the war’s opening airstrikes.
Pezeshkian, who is a member of the council, also dismissed US President Donald Trump’s call for Tehran to surrender unconditionally, saying: “That’s a dream that they should take to their grave.”
Trump threatened that Iran would be “hit very hard” and more “areas and groups of people” would become targets, without elaborating. Already, the conflict has rattled global markets and left Iran’s leadership weakened by hundreds of Israeli and American airstrikes.
“We’re not looking to settle,” Trump told reporters Saturday aboard Air Force One. “They’d like to settle. We’re not looking to settle.”
He described the ongoing US operations in Iran as an “excursion” and said issues such as rising gas prices and the safety of Americans would improve once the conflict ends.
Iran makes varying statements on attacks
Pezeshkian’s message, seemingly recorded in a hurry, underlined the limited powers exercised by the theocracy’s leaders over the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which controls the hundreds of ballistic missiles targeting Israel and other countries. It answered only to Khamenei and appears to be picking its own targets.
Pezeshkian’s statement said Iran’s leadership council had been in touch with the armed forces and “from now on, they should not attack neighboring countries or fire missiles at them, unless we are attacked by those countries. I think we should solve this through diplomacy.”
The US strikes have not come from the Gulf Arab governments under attack, but from US bases and vessels in the region.
But hard-line judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, another member of the three-man leadership council, suggested that war strategy will not change.
“The geography of some countries in the region — both overtly and covertly — is in the hands of the enemy, and those points are used against our country in acts of aggression. Intense attacks on these targets will continue,” he posted on X.
As long as US bases are present in the region, “the countries will not enjoy peace,” Iran’s Parliament speaker and a former Revolutionary Guard general, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on X.
Iran’s UN mission later suggested, without offering evidence, that strikes on nonmilitary sites “may have resulted from interception by US electronic defense systems.”
Late Saturday, top Iranian security official Ali Larijani asserted in an address carried by state media that “our leaders are united on this issue and have no disagreements with one another.”
He also said the leadership council has requested that “arrangements be made” to convene the Assembly of Experts to choose the next supreme leader, but did not say when.
Trump says the Kurds won’t be involved
Trump said he has ruled out having Kurds join the war, even though Kurdish fighters in the region are willing to assist in efforts to topple the Iranian government.
“The war is complicated enough without having ... the Kurds involved,” Trump told reporters.
Days ago, Kurdish officials told the AP that Kurdish-Iranian dissident groups based in northern Iraq were preparing for a potential cross-border military operation in Iran and that the US had asked Iraqi Kurds to support them.
The US and Israel have targeted Iran’s military capabilities, leadership and nuclear program. The war’s stated goals and timelines have repeatedly shifted as the US has at times suggested it seeks to topple Iran’s government or elevate new leadership.
The fighting has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 290 in Lebanon and 11 in Israel, according to officials in those countries. Six US troops have been killed.
Incoming missiles from Iran had people heading to bomb shelters again across Israel, with no reports of casualties.
Missile lands at US Embassy compound in Iraq
Three Iraqi security officials said a missile landed on the helicopter landing pad in the US Embassy complex in Baghdad. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. An embassy spokesperson declined to comment. There were no reports of casualties.
It was the first reported strike to land in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone since the Iran war began. Iran and allied Iraqi militias have launched dozens of attacks on US military bases and other facilities in Iraq since then.
Iraq’s caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani called the embassy attack a “terrorist act” carried out by “rogue groups.”
Strikes target other Gulf countries
US allies in the Gulf have said the Trump administration did not give them adequate time to prepare for the war.
Hours after Pezeshkian’s apology, the United Arab Emirates said debris from an aerial interception fell onto a vehicle and killed a driver. Four people have now been killed in the UAE since the war began. Authorities have said all were foreign nationals.
Sirens sounded earlier Saturday in Bahrain as Iran targeted the island kingdom. Saudi Arabia said it destroyed drones headed toward its vast Shaybah oil field and shot down a ballistic missile launched toward Prince Sultan Air Base, which hosts US forces.
In Kuwait, authorities said a wave of drones targeted critical infrastructure, including fuel tanks at Kuwait International Airport and a government building in Kuwait City. At least two people were killed by strikes in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
___
Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, and Magdy from Cairo, Egypt. Associated Press journalists Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad, Amir-Hussein Radjy in Cairo, Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem, Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, and Aamer Madhani in Doral, Florida, contributed reporting.
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