Israel carried out a deadly strike in Damascus, according to Syrian media

The SANA news agency and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israel was behind the attack.

Airstrikes targeting a residential area in the Syrian capital Damascus killed several people and damaged residential buildings, Syrian state media and the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights reported on Sunday. human rights.

Syrian state news agency, SANA, and the observatory said Israel carried out the attack. Israel, which has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-held areas in Syria in recent years, did not immediately respond to the accusations.

Reuters , citing witnesses and an official source, said a missile hit a building in an area near a large security complex near Iranian military installations.

In the past, Israel has admitted to targeting the bases of Iran-allied militant groups, such as Lebanon's Hezbollah, which provided fighters to support the troops of authoritarian Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Reports on the number of dead and injured in the area, Kafr Sousa, varied.

SANA, citing a source within the Damascus police command, said at least five people had been killed and 15 others injured after heavy Explosions were heard over the capital around 12:30 a.m. local time. He said Syrian air defenses were "facing hostile targets in the skies around Damascus".

The Britain-based observatory said in a posting on Twitter that 15 people had been killed "in an Israeli bombardment".

The strikes were the first since a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey and Syria on February 6, killing a total of more than 40,000 people.

A video shared by Syrian journalists and others on social media showed what they described as damage to buildings from the strikes. SANA, citing sources, said the strikes came from the direction of the Golan Heights.

The last known previous attack on Damascus was on January 2, according to the Associated Press, when the Syrian Army reported that the Israeli army had fired missiles at the city's international airport, killing two soldiers, wounding two others and putting the airport out of service.

Hwaida Saad contributed reporting.