Details Emerge of Israeli Shelling of Militias Near Damascus

Locations belonging to Iranian militias in the south of the Syrian capital, Damascus, were subjected to missile strikes from the Golan Heights and the Galilee region at 01.18am on February 15.

An informed source, who asked not to be named, told IranWire that the strikes had targeted the headquarters of the 1st Division near Al-Kiswah: a location Iranian militias are known to have taken as a base of operations, and which also houses weapon stores.

The source said: "Although the Syrian regime and Iranian militias' air defense systems attempted to repel the missiles, four shells hit verified targets within the division's command base, resulting in major damage and a number of casualties among the Syrian regime's forces and the Iranian militias."

The Iranian groups then imposed a security cordon around the targeted area and have not allowed anyone to get close.

The Israeli shelling also targeted the 4th Division's air defense battalion command base in the mountains surrounding the Al-Baja area on the old Damascus-Beirut road.

This area houses aerial defense systems and radar and espionage systems, and is under the supervision of Iranian experts from the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, the source told IranWire.

The shelling could be heard throughout Damascus along with the sound of ambulance sirens. Other sources also claimed that a number of missiles launched by Syrian air defense systems in Qasiyoun, Dimas, Mezzeh Military Airport, and the Jabal Al-Mani area, had fallen in residential neighborhoods, resulting in several civilian casualties.

For its part, SANA news agency claimed that Syrian air defenses had downed “most” of the missiles that were launched from the Golan Heights.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists on the ground inside the country, said: "The strikes targeted locations belonging to the Syrian Army's 4th Division in the mountains near the highway linking Damascus with the Lebanese capital Beirut."

The observatory said it believed that six Iran-backed militia members were killed: four of them near the Damascus-Beirut highway, and two in Al-Kiswah.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes against military targets linked to Iran in Syria, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses these operations. On January 13, Israeli raids targeting weapon depots and military locations in eastern Syria had killed at least 57 members of the regime forces and pro-Iranian groups.

Israel views the Islamic Republic’s deployment on its northern borders as a red line. It has repeatedly shelled facilities linked to Iran including armed convoys on their way to Lebanese Hezbollah.