Syria's foreign ministry on Tuesday condemned the latest Israeli airstrikes on targets in the south of the country, calling the attack a violation of international law.
At least three people were killed in a strike on Monday on the southwestern city of Daraa, where crowds of people had gathered to mark the 14th anniversary of a shooting by government forces that sparked the uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s government.
Syria’s Civil Defense said that three people were killed and many others wounded, including four children, a woman and three civil defense volunteers. Hundreds of people attended a funeral on Tuesday for one of the victims.
Dr. Nizar Rashdan, director of the Daraa General Hospital, told The Associated Press that the airstrike hit an abandoned army barracks near a residential area killing three and wounding 25.
Yasser al-Sharaa was standing in front of his shop when the strike occurred. “We are civilians living here. The children were scared and the building was damaged,” al-Sharaa said. “Thank God my losses were material, with no human losses.”
The Israeli military said it had hit “command centers and military sites containing weapons and military vehicles belonging to the old Syrian regime, which (the new army) are trying to make reusable.”
Israel’s military has destroyed much of the now-dissolved Syrian army assets in hundreds of airstrikes after groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, whose roots comes from al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, captured Damascus following the ouster of Assad last December.
The commemoration of the March 18, 2011, shooting in Daraa that sparked the uprising against Assad’s government was held at the city's Omari Mosque where hundreds of people marched Tuesday chanting “Oh Gaza, we will support you to death.”
The body of a young man who was killed in Monday's airstrike was carried in a coffin draped in Syrian flag. During the funeral, Ahmad al-Masalmeh carried a banner that read in English, Arabic and Hebrew, “Netanyahu and Assad are two sides of the same coin.”
“Today marks the spark of the revolution that began in Daraa against Bashar Assad,” al-Masalmeh said. “Thank God we are victorious. We are united with the Palestinian people and we will always be God willing.”
