According to the Syrian state news agency, Sunday’s attack took place shortly after midnight, when missiles struck Damascus and surrounding areas, including residential neighborhoods. Photographs published by the agency showed substantial damage to an apartment building and a car.
Syrian air-defense systems intercepted some of the missiles, but others hit the city, killing at least five people, including a soldier, and injuring 15, the agency said. Other sources reported a higher death toll: The Syrian Human Rights Observatory, an opposition-aligned group based in Britain that monitors violence in Syria, said that 15 people had died.
The strikes were the first documented since the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey and northern Syria nearly two weeks ago, killing more than 40,000 people, including more than 5,000 in Syria.
Damascus, in southern Syria, did not experience major damage in the earthquake.
But its residents have witnessed significant bloodshed and hardship since 2011, when anti-government protests evolved into a full-scale war that continues today and has left large parts of northern Syria under rebel control.
The last documented attack on Damascus was on Jan. 2, when the Syrian Army reported that Israel’s military had fired missiles toward the city’s international airport, killing two soldiers, wounding two others and putting the airport out of service.
A subsequent strike on Jan. 28 in eastern Syria, close to the Syrian-Iraqi border, killed at least 10 people in a convoy carrying arms to Iranian proxies, according to the Syrian Human Rights Observatory.
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon; Gabby Sobelman from Rehovot, Israel; and Farnaz Fassihi from New York.
