Date: Feb 12, 2019 Source: The Daily Star Israel artillery strikes Qunaitra province AMMAN/NEAR BAGHOUZ, Syria: Israeli tank artillery hit a demolished hospital and an observation post in Syria’s southern Qunaitra province near the border with Israel, Syrian state media said Monday, adding there had been only material damage. Several tank artillery rounds hit the two sites, state media reported. Asked about the reported Qunaitra strikes, an Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment. Israel has mounted attacks in Syria as part of its effort to counter the influence carved out there by Iran, which has supported Syrian President Bashar Assad in the war. A senior Israeli official said in September Israel had carried out over 200 attacks against Iranian targets in Syria in the last two years. In eastern Syria meanwhile, U.S.-led coalition warplanes struck the last Daesh (ISIS) stronghold as U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces fighters pressed their campaign to seize it. Coalition jets roared overhead as columns of white smoke rose from the Daesh-held Baghouz area a short distance from the Iraqi border, a Reuters witness said. The SDF, which has driven Daesh from swaths of northern and eastern Syria with U.S.-led coalition support, launched an offensive Saturday to capture the enclave in Deir al-Zor province. The militants were putting up stiff resistance and had sought to counterattack again Monday morning, according to Mustapha Bali, head of the SDF media office. Around 1,500 civilians had fled the enclave Monday, he added. SDF combatants watched as a column of at least 17 trucks filled with men, women and children left Baghouz along a dusty track into SDF-held territory. Women and children were crammed into the back of one of the trucks. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a coalition airstrike killed 16 civilians including seven children trying to flee the holdout Monday. The alliance was not immediately available for comment. Some of those fleeing identified themselves as Iraqis. “It seems there are still many civilians inside Baghouz,” Bali said. “We are compelled to go cautiously and accurately in this battle.” On the outskirts of Baghouz, the people who had left stood in lines to be questioned by coalition and SDF forces apparently trying to identify whether any were extremists. Ahead of launching the attack, the SDF said more than 20,000 civilians had left Baghouz in the preceding 10 days. The SDF believes 400-600 militants may be holed up there, including foreigners and other hardened militants. The Observatory said 12 SDF fighters and 19 militants were killed in the fighting Monday. Bali said there were “dozens of SDF hostages held by Daesh” inside their last foothold, but denied reports of executions. The SDF, which is spearheaded by the Kurdish YPG militia, advanced southward into Deir al-Zor province after capturing Raqqa. Their operations have been focused in areas east of the Euphrates River. To the west of the Euphrates, in territory otherwise held by the Syrian government and its allies, Daesh retains a foothold in mountainous terrain. U.S. President Donald Trump said in December he was pulling all 2,000 U.S. troops out of Syria, saying the battle against Daesh there was almost won. The top U.S. commander overseeing American forces in the Middle East said Sunday that the United States was likely just weeks away from starting the withdrawal. Daesh is still widely seen as a threat, however. Assad Bechara, a Lebanese political analyst, said Daesh was an ideology, not just a military structure, and could not be defeated simply by reclaiming territory from the group.