At least five soldiers were injured after Israeli airstrikes hit Sryria’s Homs province late Saturday night, reported AP citing Syrian state media. Reuters reported the development citing confirmation from Syria’s Defence Ministry. State media reported that Israeli Air Force carried out the strikes.
It added that Western intelligence sources said the strikes hit a series of air bases in the central region of Syria where Iranian personnel are based.
Israel launched “an aerial aggression from the direction of northwest Beirut targeting some outposts in Homs city and its countryside at 00:35 a.m.”, the Syrian defence ministry statement on state media read.
أحد الفيديوهات المتداولة لأحد المناطق التي اصيبت بإعتداء صاروخي اسرائيلي بريف #حمص وسط #سورية . pic.twitter.com/ATcHBTzKUs
— خالد اسكيف (@khalediskef) April 1, 2023
According to AP, as per the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, this is the ninth time Israel has struck dedicated targets in Syria since the beginning of 2023.
It added that the state news agency SANA, citing military sources, reported that the strikes had targeted sites in the city of Homs and the surrounding countryside. SANA further said that the Syrian air defences intercepted the missiles and shot down some of them.
The observatory said that the attack targeted Syrian military sites and those of Iran-linked militias, including a research center, AP said in its report.
According to Reuters, the Israeli military declined to comment on the latest strike in Syria which is the third since Thursday. It comes only a day after another attack on Friday that killed an officer in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years. This includes attacks on the Damascus and Aleppo airports. However, Israel rarely acknowledges any of these kinds of specific operations.
On its continuous targeted attacks, Israel has maintained that it targets bases of Iran-allied militant groups, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah. These groups are responsible for sending thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.
Notably, Israeli airstrikes had hit the suburbs of Syria’s capital city, Damascus, on Friday killing an Iranian adviser. The state media of Syria and Iran had reported the strike.
As per the AP’s report, Iran’s state television said that Milad Heidari, an Iranian military adviser, was killed during a “criminal strike” by Israel.
Israel has intensified its strikes on Syrian airports and air bases in recent times to disrupt ‘Iran’s use of aerial supply lines to deliver arms to militias’.
ALSO READ: ‘US Doesn’t Seek Conflict With Iran…’: Biden Warns After Retaliatory Strikes In Syria
