Rocket attack kills seven people south of Damascus

Photo: Xinhua/Stringer

DAMASCUS, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Seven people, including members of pro-Iranian militias, were killed in a suspected rocket attack on a Shiite bastion south of the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday, a war monitor reported. Among the casualties is a Syrian guard who was protecting an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) leader inside Syrian territory. In addition, three of the victims are believed to be members of the IRGC, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which attributed the attack to Israel.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Observatory, stressed that the target area contains strongholds of Lebanese Hezbollah, the IRGC and the Iraqi Al-Nujaba movement. The rocket attack reportedly destroyed the headquarters of one of these parties in the area.
Abdul-Rahman said the attack may be related to a recent attack by pro-Iranian militias that killed and wounded about 40 U.S. troops at a U.S. base on the Syrian-Iraqi-Jordanian border on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Syrian defence ministry issued a statement saying that "around 13:00 (10:00 GMT) the Zionist enemy launched an airstrike from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, targeting several points south of Damascus. This resulted in several civilian deaths and injuries as well as some material losses".

The incident is indicative of heightened tensions in the region between militants backed by Iran, Israel and the United States. This escalation coincided with the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip.

Xinhua/gnews.cz-JaV_07