DAMASCUS - Israeli warplanes launched multiple airstrikes on the southern countryside here late Wednesday, striking military positions and preventing access to the area for hours, according to Syrian authorities and eyewitnesses.
Residents reported at least eight Israeli raids near the town of al-Kiswah, southwest of the capital, as state-run Ikhbariya TV confirmed Israeli aircraft targeted sites in the vicinity. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes focused on military positions in Jabal al-Mani near the town of al-Harjleh, coinciding with Israeli helicopter flights over Deir Ali, a Druze village south of Damascus.
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Meanwhile, an unnamed official source told the state-run SANA news agency that during a routine army patrol near Jabal al-Mani on Aug 26, soldiers discovered monitoring and surveillance devices. While attempting to dismantle them, the site came under an Israeli air attack, leaving several soldiers dead and others wounded, in addition to the destruction of vehicles.
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SANA said six were killed during Tuesday's Israeli attack.
The source added that Israeli airstrikes and drones continued to prevent access to the area until late Wednesday, but Syrian forces managed to destroy part of the monitoring equipment and recover the bodies of those killed.
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Later Wednesday, Israeli jets launched additional strikes on the same site, according to SANA. Heavy Israeli reconnaissance flights were still reported over the region.
The observatory said no confirmed toll was yet available from the latest wave of strikes.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad's government late last year, targeting military infrastructure and expanding control around the occupied Golan Heights, in violation of a 1974 disengagement agreement.
