Israeli strikes on Syrian military positions killed 18, the government said
At least 18 people were killed during Israeli airstrikes on several military bases in central Syria, Syria’s health minister said.
State news agency Sana quoted Hassan al-Ghabbash as saying that another 37 people were injured in the attack in Masyaf area, Hama province, on Sunday night.
A UK-based monitoring group reported that 26 people were killed and that targets included a scientific research center near Masyaf that was used to build weapons.
Israel’s military said it would not comment on foreign media reports about the strikes, Syria’s Foreign Ministry condemned them as “blatant aggression” and Iran’s Foreign Ministry called it a “criminal attack”.
However, Israel has previously admitted to carrying out hundreds of strikes in recent years on targets in Syria it says are linked to Iran – Israel’s arch-enemy – and allied armed groups.
Israeli strikes have reportedly increased since the start of the war in Gaza in October last year, due to attacks by Hezbollah and other groups in Lebanon and Syria in northern Israel.
Sana’s report cited a Syrian military source as saying that an Israeli warplane flying northwest of Lebanon fired missiles at “several military positions in the central area” at around 23:20 (20:20 GMT) on Sunday.
“Our air defense forces shot down some missiles,” a military source said.
The news agency said the strikes also caused damage to the Masyaf-Wadi al-Oyoun highway and that a fire broke out in the Hair Abbas forest area.
Later, Syria’s Foreign Ministry said the attack targeted “many residential areas”, while local authorities reported that critical infrastructure had been damaged, including a fiber optic cable running under a highway and a high-voltage power line, according to SANA.
Al-Ikhbariya al-Suriyah TV also broadcast images purportedly showing a damaged building in the port city of Tartous, west of Masyaf.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) – a monitoring group based in the UK with a network of sources on the ground – reported that Israeli strikes destroyed buildings and military structures in the “Masyaf scientific research area”, in Masyaf-Wadi al. -Oyoun highway and Hair Abbas.
It said at least 26 people were killed, including five civilians, four members of the Syrian government forces and 14 Syrians working with pro-Iranian groups. The other three bodies were yet to be identified, it added.
SOHR said Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers had been stationed at the scientific research facility for six years as part of a program to develop short- and medium-range missiles and drones.
However, the spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Kanaani, told reporters in Tehran: “We do not confirm what has been reported by the media related to the Zionist regime. [Israel] about an attack on an Iranian facility or an Iranian-protected facility.”
A high-ranking military source in the region close to Damascus and Tehran also denied a report by the Reuters news agency that quoted two intelligence sources as saying that a major military research center for the production of chemical weapons had been hit several times.
Western intelligence agencies have suspected that before a branch of the Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC) near Masyaf is being used to produce chemical weapons. in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
The Syrian government has denied that. However, the facility was reportedly targeted in an alleged Israeli strike in September 2017a day after a deadly chemical attack on a rebel-held town in northern Syria that was concluded by the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was carried out by the Syrian military.
According to SOHR, Israeli airstrikes and artillery have targeted Syrian territory 64 times since the beginning of the year, causing damage or destruction to 140 targets, including weapons depots, vehicles and the military headquarters supported by Iran.
The strikes killed at least 208 fighters – including 46 members of the Syrian government forces, 43 members of Hezbollah and 24 Iranian Revolutionary Guards – and 22 civilians, the monitoring group said.
In April, Iran accused Israel of carrying out an airstrike on an embassy in Damascus that killed two senior Revolutionary Guards commanders.
Iran retaliated by launching its first direct military attack against Israel. It fired 300 missiles and drones, but almost all of them were shot down by forces led by Israel and the US.
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