Illustrative image.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has provided new details on the June 14 Israeli aerial attack against Syria and its results.
On June 15, Rear Admiral Oleg Gurinov, deputy head of the ministry’s Center for Reconciliation in Syria, said that two F-15 fighter jets from the Israeli Air Force carried out the attack.
“On June 14 … two IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] F-15 tactical fighters from the airspace of the occupied Golan Heights attacked targets in the vicinity of Damascus with four guided bombs,” Gurinov told a briefing. “The air defense forces of the Syrian armed forces that were on duty shot down one aerial bomb from the Russian-made Buk-M2E systems.”
The Israeli attack inflicted damage on two storage facilities located in the outskirts of Damascus, the Russian military official added.
The Syrian Arab News Agency reported minutes after the attack that positions in the southwestern outskirts of Damascus were hit. A military source told the official agency back then that a service member was also severely wounded.
Later, a Syrian pro-government news source reported that the service member succumbed to his wounds. He was identified as air defense operator Captain Hussain Dib.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring group of unclear funding, reported that the attack targeted ammunition depots of Iranian-backed forces near Damascus International Airport and the town of Kiswah. However, these claims are yet to be verified.
This was Israel’s first attack against Syria in June. Hundreds of Israeli strikes targeted Syria over the past decade as part of a covert military campaign by Tel Aviv meant to prevent Iran from establishing a strong presence in the country. The campaign is known as “the war between the wars”.
MORE ON THIS TOPIC:
