An Israeli 'air aggression' on Syria's central region killed four people and injured seven others, a war monitoring group said on Wednesday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes killed four, including two who lost their lives when they were hit by parts of a Syrian surface-to-air missile that fell in the central city of Homs.
State media said Syrian air defenses intercepted the attack above the city of Homs at 1:26am. "An Israeli air aggression targeted parts of the central region, and the air defenses are responding," it said.
Syrian state TV said two civilians were killed, and one civilian and six soldiers were injured in the attack.
The attack also resulted in material damage.
A Syrian opposition war monitor said the strikes hit positions housing Syrian fighters loyal to Lebanon's Hezbollah terror group, west of Homs.
Israel has staged hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled Syria over the years but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.
Israel has acknowledged, however, that it is targeting bases of Iran-allied militias, such as the powerful Lebanese Hezbollah terror group. It says it is going after posts and arms shipments believed to be bound for the groups. Hezbollah is fighting on the side of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces in the decade-old civil war.
Israel says Iranian presence on its northern frontier is a red line, justifying its strikes on facilities and weapons inside Syria.
3 View gallery
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Commander Gen. Hossein Salami, left, and the Guard's aerospace division commander Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh talk while unveiling a new drone called "Gaza" in an undisclosed location in Iran
(Photo: AFP)
Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Tuesday that Iran had attempted to smuggle explosives to terrorists in the West Bank using a drone it launched from Syria, but that Israel had intercepted it near the border.
Speaking at the Security and Policy Conference at the Reichman University in Herzliya, he said that in February 2018, Iran launched a Shahed 141 drone from the T-4 airbase in Syria carrying TNT, bound for the West Bank. It was shot down near the town of Beit She'an in northern Israel.
First published: 08:09, 11.24.21