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BEIRUT (AP) \u2014 A bomb attached to a car exploded early Saturday in the western part of the Syrian capital that is home to several diplomatic missions, killing one person and causing material damage, state media reported.<\/p>\n
Damascus\u2019 Mazze neighborhood houses the Iranian consulate,<\/a> destroyed last month in a strike blamed on Israel. The attack at the time killed seven people including two Iranian generals and a member of Lebanon\u2019s militant group Hezbollah, and triggered a direct Iranian military assault<\/a> on Israel for the first time, sparking fears<\/a> of a regionwide war.<\/p>\n Several airstrikes have hit the tightly-secured neighborhood over the past months, mostly targeting Iranian officials.<\/p>\n State news agency, SANA, didn’t say who the person killed was but said the blast set two other cars ablaze.<\/p>\n Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the man killed in the explosion was a Mazze resident who carried a card identifying him as a Syrian army officer. Abdurrahman said the dead man had close ties to the Iranians.<\/p>\n Hours after the blast in Damascus, an Israeli drone strike reportedly targeted a car and a truck outside the western Syrian town of Qusair, northwest of Damascus, close to Lebanon’s border, the Observatory and a Beirut-based pan-Arab TV station reported.<\/p>\n The strike hit the two vehicles near Dabaa air base. Qusair and its suburbs were struck several times over the past months by Israeli drones targeting Hezbollah fighters who have a presence in the area.<\/p>\n The Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV didn’t say if there were casualties, but the Observatory said two Hezbollah members were killed and several others wounded in the drone strike.<\/p>\n Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Israeli forces have traded cross-border fire a day after the Israel-Hamas war<\/a> started on Oct. 7 on an almost daily basis. Since then, more than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters, and more than 70 civilians and non-combatants, according to an Associated Press tally.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Israel says at least 15 soldiers and 10 civilians have so far been killed in the clashes.<\/p>\n Tehran has been sending advisers to Syria since the country\u2019s conflict, which later turned into civil war, began in March 2011 and has killed half a million people. Iran-backed fighters have helped tip the balance of power in favor of President Bashar Assad\u2019s government.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s military presence in Syria has been a major concern for Israel, which has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment along its northern border. Syria has accused Israel of carrying out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts in recent years \u2014 but Israel has rarely acknowledged such strikes.<\/p>\n The war in Gaza started after Hamas led militants in a surprise attack on southern Israel. About 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage<\/a>. Israel responded with a retaliatory war that has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians,<\/a> many of them women and children, according to Gaza health officials.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n