Israeli strikes kill 9 in southwestern Syria
[April 04, 2025]
By MALEK KHATTAB and KAREEM CHEHAYEB
NAWA, Syria (AP) — Israeli strikes in Syria reportedly killed at least
nine people in the southwest of the country on Thursday, as Israel
accused Turkey of trying to build a “protectorate” in Syria.
Syrian state news agency SANA said that those who died in the strikes
were civilians, without giving details. Britain-based war monitor The
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that they were armed residents
from the Daraa province.
Israel had also struck five cities in Syria late Wednesday, including
more than a dozen strikes near a strategic air base in the city of Hama,
where Turkey, a key ally of interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa,
reportedly has interests in having a military presence.
Syria's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the strikes had
resulted in the “near-total destruction of the Hama military airport and
the injury of dozens of civilians and military personnel.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar accused Turkey of playing a
“negative role” in Syria.
“They are doing their utmost to have Syria as a Turkish protectorate,
it’s clear that this is their intention," he told a news conference in
Paris on Thursday. “We don’t think that it was good when Syria was an
Iranian proxy .... And we don’t think that Syria should be” a Turkish
protectorate."
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry responded with a statement accusing Israel of
“undermining efforts to establish stability in Syria.”
“Israel has become the greatest threat to the security of our region
with its attacks targeting the territorial integrity and national unity
of the countries in the region,” it said.
Israel has seized parts of southwestern Syria and created a buffer zone
there since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, saying
it’s to secure Israel’s safety from armed groups. But critics say the
military operations have created tensions in Syria and aim to prevent
any long-term stability and reconstruction for the war-torn country.
In the city of Nawa in western Daraa province, thousands took part in a
procession through the streets to bury the dead.
Imad al Basri, an activist from the city, said that Israeli forces had
advanced on Nawa for the first time on Thursday and arrived to the
surrounding rural area when “people started to come out with light arms
to the area of the incursion and there was an exchange of fire from both
sides.”
Israeli soldiers withdrew and the Israeli military began to target the
area with artillery shelling and airstrikes, he said, adding that
ambulances were prevented from reaching the wounded and dead until the
morning. He called on Syria’s new rulers to take a stronger stance.
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Two Syrian army officers inspect the site of an Israeli strike at a
military airbase near Hama, Syria, Thursday April 3 2025.(AP Photo)
“Why is the government silent about these incursions?”
Last month, residents in the village of Koawaya in the province had
clashed with Israeli troops trying to cross through agricultural
land.
On Thursday, the Israeli military dropped flyers in the area of
Koawaya warning residents not to carry weapons and not to cross a
road on the southwestern edge of the village.
Syria's interim leadership has struggled to appeal to non Sunni
Muslim communities. Tensions are still simmering with the Druze
community in the south, and the Alawites on the coast are still
fearful after clashes between security forces and Assad loyalists
led to revenge killings.
Amnesty International said that the killings should be investigated
as war crimes and accused government-affiliated militias of
deliberately killing civilians.
“Our evidence indicates that government affiliated militias
deliberately targeted civilians from the Alawite minority in
gruesome reprisal attacks — shooting individuals at close range in
cold blood,” Agnčs Callamard, secretary-general of the international
human rights group, said in a statement. “For two days, authorities
failed to intervene to stop the killings.”
The new authorities have, however, made progress in relations with
Kurdish-led forces, which control much of the country's northeast.
Turkish-backed former insurgent groups allied with the new
authorities in Damascus had been fighting with Kurdish forces, but
the clashes subsided after a landmark deal was reached between the
Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and the government in Damascus
last month.
On Thursday, SANA reported that a prisoner exchange had taken place
in Aleppo between the SDF and forces affiliated with the new
government in Damascus, with 250 prisoners slated to be released by
both sides.
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Kareem Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Abby Sewell contributed to
this report from Beirut.
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