BICOM

Syrian state media have reported that Israel fired missiles at a site near Damascus overnight. Al Hayat said the target was the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Centre (CERS) located at Jamraya, a suburb north of Damascus, which Western intelligence agencies have identified as a military facility where missiles and chemical weapons have been produced.

Syrian media said the Syrian air defence system intercepted and destroyed some of the missiles but others reached their target. Reports on social media claimed that three explosions were heard in the Damascus area. Syria has accused Israel of bombing the Jamraya facility in 2013 and 2017 but Israeli officials have not commented on the reports.

The UN Security Council on Monday discussed new reports of chemical weapons deployed by the Assad regime. UK Ambassador to the UN, John Allen, said that “the reality is that, for the citizens of Idlib and eastern Ghouta, nowhere is safe”. The United Nations has called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Syria of at least a month, as heavy air strikes were reported to have killed scores of people in the last major rebel stronghold in Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus.

U.N. officials have called for a ceasefire so aid can be delivered and the sick and wounded can be evacuated. It has listed seven areas of concern, including northern Syria’s Kurdish-led Afrin region, which is currently the target of a Turkish military offensive. Panos Moumtzis, assistant U.N. Secretary-General and Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis said: “For the last two months we have not had a single (aid-delivery) convoy. This is really outrageous.”