LONDON, July 17. /TASS/. Western diplomats were passing within meters of the General Staff of the Syrian armed forces in Damascus when Israel struck the building with missiles, Reuters reported, citing sources.
They were travelling in an armored convoy, according to the report. No one in the convoy was injured and it continued on its way, the people said, declining to give further details on the nationalities or number of the diplomats.
Tensions in southern Syria escalated on July 13, when clashes broke out between Arab tribal militias and Druze self-defense forces. On July 15, Syrian forces entered the city of Sweida name and began mopping it up in order to stabilize the situation. Shortly after, Israel started striking Syrian military convoys, arguing that it was seeking to protect the Druze population of the province.
On July 16, the Israeli Air Force struck some strategic targets in and around Damascus, including the General Staff headquarters, the presidential palace and the Mezzeh military airfield. According to Reuters, five members of the government security forces were killed in the strikes on the General Staff.
The Druze are an Arabic-speaking ethnic and religious group whose members live in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. The 700,000 Druze in Syria make up the country’s third-largest religious and ethnic minority after the Kurds and Alawites.