Israeli airstrikes hit Damascus and a suburb, killing 15 people, Syrian state media say
LA TimesSecurity officers and rescuers gather near a building destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Damascus, Syria, on Thursday. Israel carried out at least two airstrikes on a western neighborhood of Damascus and one of the capital’s suburbs Thursday, killing at least 15 people and wounding 16, Syria’s state news agency said. The Israeli military said it had hit infrastructure sites and command centers of the Islamic Jihad militant group in Syria, and had “inflicted significant damage to the terrorist organization’s command center and to its operatives.” The airstrikes in Damascus and the nearby suburb came shortly before Ali Larijani, an advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was scheduled to meet in the Syrian capital with representatives of Palestinian factions at the Iranian Embassy in Mazzeh. Lebanon’s state media said an Israeli airstrike Thursday hit a building in Baalbek city in eastern Lebanon, killing at least nine people and wounding five others. Speaking Thursday evening, Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that over the last week, Israel had “struck more than 300 targets from the air across Lebanon, including about 40 targets in the heart of the Dahiyeh in Beirut.” Israeli warplanes intensified airstrikes Thursday, targeting various areas in southern and eastern Lebanon, including the outskirts of the southern port city of Tyre and Nabatiyeh province, the National News Agency said.