An Israeli F-16 fighter jet en route to an exercise in Germany in an undated photograph. (Israel Defense Forces)
The recent Israeli strikes on Syria targeted an installation where Iranian officials were meeting to advance programmes to develop drone or missile, Reuters reported on February 22 citing multiple sources.
The strikes, which took place on February 19, hit a multi-storey building in the highly-secured Kafar Sousah neighborhood in Damascus, and several military positions in the outskirts of the capital.
A source close to the Syrian government told Reuters that the strikes targeted a gathering of Syrian and Iranian technical experts in drone manufacturing. The unnamed source noted that no top-level Iranian was killed.
“The strike hit the center where they were meeting as well as an apartment in a residential building. One Syrian engineer and one Iranian official – not high-ranking – were killed,” the source was quoted as saying.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said that five, including four civilians, were killed and at least 15 others were wounded as a result of the strikes.
A second source, who spoke to Syrian security personnel briefed on the matter, said Iranians were attending the meeting of technical experts in an Iranian military installation in the basement of the Kafar Sousah building. He said one of those killed was a Syrian army civil engineer who worked at Syria’s Scientific Studies and Research Centre.
Meanwhile, a regional security source told Reuters that an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) engineer involved in Iran’s missile programme was seriously wounded in the strikes and transferred to a hospital in Tehran, while two other mid-ranking Guards members at the meeting were unharmed.
Another source, a regional intelligence official familiar with the strikes, said the target was part of a covert guided missile production programme run by the IRGC. A fifth regional source with knowledge of the strike and its target, said officials from Iran and Hezbollah were targeted.
The strikes were Israel’s largest attack on Syria this year. Iran, Russia and Lebanon were among few countries who condemned the unprovoked attack.
The recent attacks were apparently a part of Israel’s “War-Between-Wars” military campaign, which is meant to push Iran and its allies out of the war-torn country as well as to prevent them from developing their offensive capabilities.
