Strikes in Syria near Aleppo kill 38, injure dozens, say security sources

The Syrian army claimed that Israeli airstrikes early Friday near the northern city of Aleppo killed and wounded several people and caused material damage, while security sources cited by Reuters said that at least 38 people had been killed.

Syrian state media quoted an unnamed military official as saying that the Israeli strikes coincided with drone attacks by Syrian insurgent groups on civilian targets in Aleppo and its suburbs. It did not give an exact number of casualties.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor with questionable funding and sourcing, said Israeli strikes hit missile depots for Lebanon’s terrorist Hezbollah group in Aleppo’s southern suburb of Jibreen near the Aleppo International Airport. It added that 36 soldiers were killed and dozens were wounded in the strikes. The Observatory said explosions were still heard two hours after the strikes.

Two security sources cited by Reuters said that the strikes killed 38 people, including five members of Hezbollah.

Syrian state news agency SANA said the pre-dawn strike killed and wounded civilians, as well as military personnel, without providing a death toll.

A truck in flames following an alleged Israeli airstrike near the Syrian town of Qusayr, February 25, 2024. (X screengrab: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

On Thursday, Syrian state media reported airstrikes near the capital Damascus, saying it wounded two civilians.

Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and once its commercial center, has come under such attacks in the past that led to the closure of its international airport. Friday’s strike did not affect the airport.

The strikes have escalated over the past five months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza and ongoing clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanon-Israel border.

The war began on October 7 with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel in which terrorists murdered some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 253. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza claims that more than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the war, an unverified figure which includes more than 13,000 Hamas operatives killed by Israel.

This picture taken from Israel along the border with southern Lebanon shows smoke billowing above the Lebanese village of Bint Jbeil during Israeli airstrikes on February 28, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and the Hezbollah terror group. (Jalaa Marey/AFP)

Israel has exchanged near-daily, cross-border fire with Hamas ally Hezbollah since the Gaza war began, sparking fears of a major regional conflagration.

At least 346 people have been killed in Lebanon — mostly Hezbollah terrorists, but also including at least 68 civilians — in clashes with Israel over the last six months, according to an AFP tally.

The fighting has also displaced tens of thousands of people in southern Lebanon and in northern Israel, where the IDF says 10 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed.

While Iran-backed Hezbollah is Lebanese, it has sent terrorists into Syria to support its ally President Bashar al-Assad since an uprising against his rule erupted in 2011. The uprising quickly morphed into a civil war drawing in regional and global players. Hezbollah has continued to operate in the country since.