Syria condemns Israeli strike that killed six soldiers

Security forces in Damascus earlier this year. Six army soldiers were killed by Israeli drone strikes just outside the capital on Tuesday. (File/SANA)

• Foreign ministry says attack was a 'clear violation' of the country’s sovereignty
• The attack hit a military building near Kisweh, outside Damascus on Tuesday

DAMASCUS: Syria on Wednesday condemned an Israeli drone strike that killed six soldiers the previous day, calling it a “clear violation” of the country’s sovereignty.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since an opposition alliance toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December.
It has also opened talks with the interim authorities in Damascus.
In a statement, Syria’s foreign ministry called the strike “a gross violation of international law and the United Nations Charter.”
It added that the attack represented “a clear breach of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic.”
State television reported six army personnel “were killed in strikes by Israeli occupation drones” near Kisweh, outside Damascus in the Tuesday attack.
A defense ministry official had previously told AFP on condition of anonymity that an Israeli drone targeted “one of the military buildings of the 44th Division.”
The Israeli military did not respond to an AFP request for comment.
Earlier Tuesday, state news agency SANA reported that “a young man was killed in an Israeli strike on a home in the village of Taranja,” on the formerly Syria-controlled side of the armistice line on the Golan Heights.
Since Assad’s overthrow, Israel has occupied much of a UN-patrolled demilitarised zone on the formerly Syria-controlled side of the armistice line.