An Islamic Jihad official confirmed that the target was the home of the group's deputy leader, Akram Al-Ajouri. In a statement, Islamic Jihad blamed the attack on "the Zionist criminal enemy." It was not immediately clear if Al-Ajouri was among the dead or the wounded.
Al-Ajouri was said to be Abu Al-Ata's primary contact in the top echelons of Islamic Jihad. The bombing on Tuesday made it seem like Israel was launching a coordinated assault against the Iranian-backed terrorist organization that is mostly based in Gaza but also has headquarters in the Syrian capital. Moreover, Syrian state media said late on Monday that the Syrian army fired on a "hostile target" in the town of Daraya, west of the capital, Damascus,The nature of the target was not immediately clear and the report did not say if it had been brought down in the action. In recent years, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria against its regional arch foe Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah group, which it calls the biggest threat to its borders.Destroy an enemy missile over Damascus pic.twitter.com/9US47Umo0u
— Hamza sulyman (@hamza_780) November 12, 2019