22 hours Ago By Associated Press
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — At least nine people in southwestern Syria were reported killed in Israeli strikes on Thursday as Israel accused Turkey of trying to build a “protectorate” in Syria. Syrian state news agency, SANA, said those who died in the strikes were civilians, without giving details. Britain-based war monitor The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said they were armed residents from the Daraa province.
Israel had also struck five cities in Syria late Wednesday, including over a dozen strikes near a strategic airbase 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 in a statement said 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 press conference in Paris on Thursday. "We don’t think that it was good when Syria was an Iranian proxy, kind of Iranian proxy. And we don’t think that Syria should be Turkish protectorate.
” There was no immediate response from Turkish officials. Israel has seized parts of southwestern Syria and created a buffer-zone there since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad. It says it’s to secure Israel’s safety from armed groups, but critics say the military operations have created tensions in Syria and aims to prevent any long-term stability and reconstruction for the war-torn country.
Last month, residents in the village of Koawaya in the province had clashed with Israeli troops trying to cross through agricultural land. 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 in the coast are still fearful after clashes between security forces and former loyalists of ousted President Bashar Assad led to revenge killings.
Amnesty International said 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,” Agnès Callamard, secretary-general of the international human rights group, said in a statement. “For two days, authorities failed to intervene to stop the killings.
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