RUSSIA SAYS ISRAELI ATTACKS ON SYRIA ‘FRAUGHT WITH DANGEROUS CONSEQUENCES’

Fri 29 March 2024:

Russia’s foreign ministry denounced Israel for its deadly air raids on Syria, calling it a breach of the country’s sovereignty.

Such attacks are “fraught with extremely dangerous consequences”, said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.

The attack on Syria’s Aleppo province is Israel’s deadliest in months, killing at least 42 people including 36 Syrian soldiers, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The fatalities included six members of Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group confirmed on Telegram.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) put the death toll at 42 and said dozens of people were injured. The Reuters news agency reported that 38 people were killed.

The attacks about 1:45am on Friday (22:45 GMT on Thursday) targeted several areas in Aleppo’s countryside, Syria’s Ministry of Defence said. It did not provide casualty figures, only saying a number of civilians and military personnel were killed and property was damaged after Israel and unnamed armed groups carried out the strikes, according to Syria’s state news agency SANA.

The SOHR, an opposition war monitor, said in posts on X that Israeli strikes hit a weapons depot near Aleppo International Airport, resulting in a series of large explosions.

At least 36 Syrian soldiers were killed, it said, adding that Hezbollah weapons depots were located in the area.

The Israeli military has not confirmed the attacks.

Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said while Syrian state media did not reveal the target, activists on the ground said Syrian soldiers and fighters from Hezbollah, which has a military presence in Syria, were killed.

“Recently, we have seen almost consecutive Israeli strikes in Syria as it widely hits Iranian targets in Syria,” Khodr reported.

Damascus allies Russia and Iran slammed the Israeli strikes.

Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow considers the strikes a flagrant violation of Syria’s sovereignty.

Zakharova said such actions were “fraught with extremely dangerous consequences” in the light of a sharp escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Iran also said they were a “violation of Syria’s sovereignty” and “a serious threat to regional and international peace and security”.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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