Russia has condemned a fresh round of Israeli airstrikes on Syria—the second in less than a week—that reportedly killed several civilians and an Iranian military officer on June 3.
“Moscow strongly condemns these aggressive actions, which constitute a gross violation of Syria’s sovereignty and the basic rules of international law,” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
Describing the strikes as “unacceptable,” the ministry called on Israel’s leadership to “abandon this vicious practice that risks destabilizing the entire Middle East.”
In the early hours of June 3, Israeli warplanes struck multiple positions near Syria’s northwestern city of Aleppo.
According to Syria’s SANA news agency, the airstrikes left “a number of civilians” dead and caused significant material damage.
Iranian media later reported that a member of Tehran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps had also been killed in the attack.
The Epoch Times could not independently verify the reports.
Israel, for its part, has not acknowledged the strikes.
Since civil conflict erupted in Syria in 2011, Iran has kept a military presence in the war-torn country to support the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
In 2015, Russia, which views Iran as a key regional ally, also deployed forces to Syria at the invitation of Damascus.
The latest round of airstrikes was the second reported Israeli attack on positions in Syria in less than a week.
On May 29, Israel reportedly staged a series of airstrikes on targets in central Syria and the coastal city of Baniyas.
According to SANA, the strikes targeted a residential building in Baniyas, killing a child and injuring 10 residents.
The news agency cited a military source who claimed that Israel’s aerial attack had originated “from the direction of Lebanese territory.”
Israel, in line with longstanding policy, refrained from commenting on the incident.
A Russian Defense Ministry official, however, later appeared to confirm the strikes.
“Two pairs of Israeli F-16s conducted strikes on military infrastructure facilities in [Syria’s] Homs province with ... missiles,” Major-General Yury Popov said in a May 30 statement.
“One fell in the city of Baniyas, killing a child, injuring 10 civilians, and damaging a residential building,” he added.
Since Israel was established in 1948, it has fought three major conflicts with Syria, with which it still technically remains in a state of war.
Since 2011, Israel has carried out strikes on Syrian targets with increasing frequency.
Late last year, the Damascus and Aleppo international airports were attacked simultaneously by Israeli warplanes, damaging runways, and grounding scheduled flights.
Escalation Fears
Strikes on targets inside Syria have ramped up since October, when Israel began a wide-ranging offensive—which is still underway—against the Gaza Strip.On April 1, Israeli warplanes struck Iran’s consulate in Damascus, killing seven high-ranking Iranian military officers and six Syrian nationals.
It was the first time that a foreign diplomatic mission in Syria came under attack, signaling a dramatic shift in Israel’s war with its regional foes.
The attack on the consulate was condemned by most states of the region, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Pakistan.
Even U.S. officials, who typically defend Israel’s right to “self-defense,” voiced concern over the attack’s possible ramifications.
“We are worried about anything that might cause the conflict [between Israel and its enemies] to expand,” a U.S. State Department spokesman said at the time.
Moscow, for its part, described the attack as “absolutely unacceptable,” with the Russian embassy in Tehran calling it a “gross violation of international norms.”
Two weeks later, Tehran responded to the strike on its consulate, firing more than 300 drones and missiles at military targets in Israel.
The Iranian barrage did not cause any casualties, with most incoming missiles and drones being intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defense system.
Tehran, meanwhile, has yet to respond to Israel’s June 3 attack near Aleppo that reportedly killed an Iranian military officer.
But on the same day, Lebanon’s Hezbollah group claimed to have launched a squadron of drones at an army headquarters in northern Israel.
It also claimed to have fired dozens of rockets at positions in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
According to the group, the barrages were launched in retaliation for an earlier Israeli attack that killed a Hezbollah member and two Lebanese civilians.
On June 4, the Israeli army and emergency services struggled to contain massive wildfires in the country’s north caused by Hezbollah’s cross-border attack.
“[Israeli] forces have gained control over the locations of the fire, and, at this stage, no human life is at risk,” the army said in a statement.
