Airwars assessment
At least two civilians were killed in alleged Israeli strikes in the vicinity of Damascus on March 7, 2022. In addition, up to four militants were also killed and up to six others were injured.
Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), a Syrian regime-controlled news agency, reported that two civilians were killed by Israeli strikes in the vicinity of Damascus at around 5am, in addition to material losses. SANA added that the regime’s air defenses intercepted most of the missiles and that the source of the missiles was southern Lebanon south of Beirut.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights originally reported that there were no casualties resulting from the Israeli strikes but later revised their reporting to “two members of Iranian-backed militiamen were killed in the Israeli attack, one of whom is from the southern Syrian province of Daraa and was operating under the banner of a local Iranian-backed militia, and the other was not identified whether he is a Syrian or non-Syrian fighter. The Israeli attack also injured six Iranian-backed militiamen.”
A tweet from @HalabTodayTV differentiated between the civilians and militants killed, reporting that “two civilians and 4 members of the regime forces were killed in an Israeli bombing”.
A tweet from SAM Syria identified two of the people killed: Honorable Lieutenant Khaled Ghazi Ghazieh and Honorable Lieutenant Ali Muhammad Al-Nassar, both from Daraa Governorate – the city of al-Sanamayn. @HoranFreeMedia added that Al-Nasser “[worked] within a local militia backed by Iran.”
Euphrares Post quoted the official Iranian agency, Tasnim, which announced the killing of two leaders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards militia – Colonel Ihsan Karbalapour and Colonel Mortada Saeed. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights added that both Colonels died after being transferred to hospitals in Damascus.
Shaam News quoted informed sources that indicated that the day before the strikes, “an Iranian Boeing 747 cargo plane belonging to Fars Qeshm Airlines (the Iranian Revolutionary Guards) made a flight between Tehran and Damascus and stayed at Damascus International Airport for about three hours.” Sout Al Asima added that Iran uses this plane to transport arms and ammunition shipments to Syria.
Military sources told Sout Al Asima that the strikes occurred at a site belonging to the Iranian militias in the vicinity of Damascus International Airport, another Iranian militia site south of the capital which they suspected was a warehouse for storing weapons, and an Iranian outpost near the city of “Al-Qutayfah”. @SAMSyria0 also identified a marble factory in the Al-Salima Industrial Area at the entrance to Dahiyat Al-Assad as a site of the strikes.
The incident occured at approximately 5:00 am local time.