Israel Mounts Largest Attack On Syria In Years, Over 40 Dead
On Friday Israel conducted its deadliest strikes on Syria in months, or perhaps even years, given the immense death toll is mounting into several dozens killed amid a large emergency response to the scene.
The airstrikes were conducted deep into Syria, in northern Syria's Aleppo province, and left over 40 people dead. This reportedly included Syrian soldiers, Hezbollah militants, and civilians. Most international reports are saying 42 were killed, but the Syrian government did not initially give a precise casualty count.
The anti-Assad opposition and UK-based organization Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) described that the Aleppo attack left the highest number of dead among Syrian soldiers in a single such Israeli attack. While Israel doesn't typically directly own up to or confirm such attacks on Syrian soil, its military has been conducting sporadic attacks on Syria going back years.
The attack happened in the pre-dawn, overnight hours - with state-run SANA emphasizing that many civilians were killed and wounded, but without giving a figure.
Syria's defense ministry pointed to the airstrikes having some level of coordination from "terrorist organizations" on the ground which "in conjunction" to the air raid carried out drone attacks, presumably from Al-Qaeda (Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham) occupied Idlib. Some reports are saying that Israeli warplanes hit a "Hezbollah warehouse" - though there's no ground confirmation of this.
This new major attack comes the day after Israeli airstrikes on a suburb of Damascus, which reportedly wounded two civilians. Israeli officials and media have long claimed to be waging a campaign against Iranian and IRGC operatives and assets in Syria.
Sky News has verified social media video showing massive explosions from the site of the overnight Aleppo attacks:
⚡️Sky News publishes scenes showing the bloody Israeli strikes on Aleppo pic.twitter.com/xgLxjrNJmP
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) March 29, 2024
After the Oct.7 Hamas terror attack, this 'counter Iran' campaign has also focused on Lebanon, where Tehran-backed Hezbollah has entered a hot conflict with Israeli forces along the border.
The Syrian government under President Bashar Al-Assad has frequently lodged formal complaints at the United Nations that the country's sovereignty is constantly being violated by Israeli aggression, however, this is by and large fallen on deaf ears.
In the initial days and weeks after Oct.7, Syria had lobbed several rockets toward the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which left no casualties. Much of the Syrian populace has meanwhile become frustrated and expressed growing anger that the Russian military, has has long had a significant presence inside Syria (especially since 2015), has not done more to try and intercept inbound Israeli jets.
As far as Israeli attacks, Moscow has long been content to stay on the sidelines, so long as the ostensible targets are said to be 'Iranian-linked'.