DAMASCUS: Israeli strikes killed at least six people across southern Syria, state media and official sources said Tuesday, as Israel continues attacks on the country’s new leaders even as it pursues talks.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since an Islamist-led alliance toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December.
It has also opened talks with the interim authorities in Damascus.
Drone strikes killed six Syrian soldiers outside Damascus, state television reported Wednesday, updating the toll for attacks the previous day, which also saw a man killed in the south.
Three soldiers were killed in an attack near Damascus, an official at the defense ministry told AFP on Tuesday.
“An Israeli drone targeted one of the military buildings of the 44th division of the Syrian army in Kiswah, west of Damascus, killing three members of the division,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Earlier in the day, the official SANA news agency reported that “a young man was killed in an Israeli strike on a home in the village of Taranja,” on the formerly Syria-controlled side of the armistice line on the Golan Heights.
Syria condemned “the recent Israeli attacks on its territory, which resulted in the martyrdom of a young man,” the foreign ministry said.
It also condemned the Israeli forces’ incursion into a town in the Quneitra countryside, their “arrest campaigns against civilians,” and their “announcement of the continuation of their illegal presence on the summit of Mount Hermon and the buffer zone.”
“These aggressive practices constitute a flagrant violation of the UN Charter, international law, and relevant Security Council resolutions, and constitute a direct threat to peace and security in the region.”
The Israeli military said on Sunday that it had carried out “several activities last week in southern Syria to locate weapons and apprehend suspects.”
The Saudi foreign ministry said the Israeli attacks were a “flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the sisterly Syrian Arab Republic and international law.”
The Qatari foreign ministry called on “the international community to take decisive action against the Israeli occupation and compel it to halt its repeated attacks on Syrian territory.”
Since Assad’s overthrow, Israel has occupied much of a UN-patrolled demilitarised zone on the formerly Syria-controlled side of the armistice line, including the summit of Mount Hermon, the region’s highest peak.
Last week, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani met Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer in Paris to push for a return to the arrangements that had been in place since a 1974 disengagement agreement.
