March 30, 2024 (EIRNS)—Syria has been plagued by Israeli and terrorist air strikes this past week. Yesterday, AFP cited the Syrian Observatory reporting that 42 people, including 6 members of Hezbollah and 36 Syrian soldiers, were killed in a strike on what they claimed was a Hezbollah arms depot somewhere in Aleppo province.
SANA also reported the strike, but without giving the number of casualties. A Syrian military source told SANA that “at approximately 1:45 am, the Israeli enemy launched an air attack from the direction of Athriya, southeast of Aleppo,” adding that “civilians and military personnel” had been killed and wounded in the strike. A few hours earlier, there was also a strike in the Damascus countryside which wounded two people and caused material damage.
According to a statement issued by the Syrian Foreign Ministry, at the same time as the Israeli strikes in Aleppo, terrorists launched attacks from Idlib.
“Syria condemns the terrorist aggression launched by the Israeli occupation entity at dawn Friday [March 29], targeting a number of points in Aleppo countryside, causing the martyrdom and wounding a number of civilians and military personnel and material damage on public and private property,” it said otherwise. “The Syrian Arab Republic stresses that the Israeli violations of Syrian territory and its repeated aggressions on residential neighborhoods prove the aggressive and barbaric nature of this entity.”
The statement called on all countries in the world to assume their responsibilities in the face of serious and repeated Israeli violations of the principles of international and humanitarian law, and to force the Zionist entity and its supporters to stop their attacks and crimes in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.
There was also a strike earlier in the week in Deir Ezzor, which killed some 20 people including an IRGC officer. The U.S. was blamed for that strike, though the Pentagon denied U.S. military involvement. In a vehement statement, the Syrian Foreign Ministry criticized the United States for assuming the role of a global enforcer, utilizing pretexts that contravene established international norms, reported Tishreen. It demanded an immediate cessation of what it terms the U.S.’s “illegitimate presence” on Syrian soil, accusing the U.S. of directly supporting Daesh and other terrorist entities through both open endorsement and financial backing.
