UPDATE 3-Israel targets Damascus home of Islamic Jihad official, group says
The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said Israel targeted the house of one of its officials in the Syrian capital on Tuesday, killing one of his sons.
Syrian state media earlier reported that at least two people were killed and six wounded in an attack in the early hours that targeted a building in Damascus, without saying who had been targeted or who had carried out the attack. An Islamic Jihad official confirmed it was the same incident in which the home of the political leader, Akram Al-Ajouri, was struck. In a statement, Islamic Jihad blamed the attack on "the Zionist criminal enemy".
Also on Tuesday, Israel killed a top commander of the Islamic Jihad in a rarely targeted strike in the Gaza Strip, accusing him of carrying out a series of cross-border attacks and planning more. Syrian state media identified the building as a civilian home located near the Lebanese embassy in Mezzah, a western district of the capital that is home to Damascus University and many foreign embassies.
Earlier, state media had said the Syrian army opened fire on "a hostile target" over Daraya, a suburb southwest of Damascus. Photos published by state news agency SANA showed damage to a two-story building and debris strewn over cars. In recent years, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria against its regional arch-foe Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah group, which it calls the biggest threat to its borders.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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