Jamraya

Jamraya or Jemraya (Arabic: جمرايا) is a village in the Qudsaya District of Rif Dimashq (Damascus Countryside) in southern Syria. It lies 3 miles (5 km)^[2] to the northwest of the Syrian capital of Damascus city, beyond Mount Qasioun, and is now an outlying suburb of greater Damascus.^[3]^[4] It is between al-Hamah and Qudsaya town to the south, and Ashrafiyat al-Wadi to the north. It is about 10 miles (15 km) from the Lebanese border.^[5] According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of 1,156 in the 2004 census.^[1]

Military facilities[edit]

A military research facility of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center is located in Jamraya; weapons are developed and stored here, and the site has been accused of developing chemical weapons.^[4]^[6]^[7] The highly secretive military facility was established in the 1980s, when Syria was a Soviet ally.^[8]

A parking lot at the research center was the site of a January 31, 2013 Israeli airstrike on missiles parked there. Another Israeli attack on May 5, 2013 destroyed buildings located in a chicken farm a mile from the research center.^[9] An Israeli airstrike on January 12, 2019 damaged a suspected Iranian target in a Syrian military base 1.5 km west of the research center.^[10]

^ ^a ^b General Census of Population and Housing 2004. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Rif Dimashq Governorate. (in Arabic)
^ Kelley, Michael (February 2, 2013). "Israel's strike on Syria was a brilliant tactical move". Business Insider Australia. Archived from the original on May 9, 2013. Retrieved May 11, 2013.
^ Tom Watkins and Chelsea J. Carter, Syrian TV: Israeli Rockets Target Damascus Suburb (May 6, 2013), CNN.
^ ^a ^b Edmund Sanders and Patrick J. McDonnell, Israel Says Strikes in Syria Target Arms for Hezbollah (May 5, 2013), Los Angeles Times.
^ Karin Laub and Josef Federman, Syria says Israel strikes military research center (May 4, 2013), Associated Press.
^ Damascus military facilities 'hit by Israel rockets' (May 5, 2013), BBC.
^ Alexander Marquardt, Syria Warns Israel of 'All Possibilities' After Strikes (May 5, 2013), ABC News.
^ Profile: Syria's top-secret Jamraya research centre (May 5, 2013), BBC.
^ McMahon, Felim (7 May 2013). "Syria – [Public] Analysis of where air strikes blamed on Israel hit – May 05". Storyful. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
^ "Satellite images taken after Israeli strikes reveal level of damage on Syrian sites". 22 January 2019. Archived from the original on 21 February 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2019.