Photo shows a burned Syrian army helicopter after Israeli strikes targeted purported weapons depots near the Mezzeh military airbase, outside Damascus, Syria, on December 9, 2024.     (Photo by AFP)

Damascus, December 15 (RHC)-- Israeli military aircraft have reportedly carried out fresh airstrikes against military installations in the Syrian capital Damascus and its countryside, in the latest such acts of aggression since militants brought down the government of Bashar al-Assad almost a week ago.

“Israeli strikes destroyed a scientific institute” and other related military facilities in Barzeh, in northern Damascus, and targeted a “military airport” in the capital’s countryside early on Saturday, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Strikes also targeted “Scud ballistic missile warehouses” and launchers in the Qalamoun mountainous area, as well as “rockets, depots and tunnels under the mountain”, according to the Britain-based Observatory.

The Observatory said several rounds of bombardment targeted military positions in the countryside of Damascus, as well as in the southern Sweida province and the western-central province of Hama on Friday.

Israel air strikes hit “a missile base at the top of Damascus’s Mount Qasyun”, the group said, as well as an airport in Sweida province and “defense and research labs in Masyaf”, in Hama province.

In rural Damascus, Israeli missiles struck locations associated with Syria’s electronic warfare operations, including Branch 295 and the 1st Regiment under the Electronic Warfare Directorate, as well as fuel depots near the town of Najha.

Loud explosions rocked southern Sweida as Israeli jets hovered overhead. The strikes hit areas around Tel al-Qalib and near the village of al-Kafr, where Syrian military barracks are positioned along the Sweida road, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Columns of smoke were seen rising from the barracks following the bombings, the Britain-based monitoring group added.  Additionally, residents in the southwestern Dara’a province reported Israeli warplanes flying over the Yarmouk Basin in the western countryside.

This comes as Israeli forces have seized the so-called buffer zone, which separates the occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria, in violation of a 1974 disengagement agreement.  The occupation forces have entered several towns in Quneitra, forcibly evacuating residents.