Damascus claims to have intercepted several incoming missiles fired from Lebanese airspace; observer says Iran-linked base targeted; no comment from IDF
Syria said Israeli jets attacked several military sites near the capital Damascus and the central city of Homs early Monday, killing four civilians, including a small infant.
State news agency SANA said that Syrian air defense had intercepted several of the incoming missiles that were fired from Lebanese airspace.
The report said four civilians, including a “month-old baby,” were killed and 21 people injured in explosions in Sahnaya, a neighborhood of Damascus. It blamed the deaths on “Zionist aggression.”
SANA gave no further details on the sites targeted.
However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the strikes had targeted a research center and a military airport west of the city of Homs where the Hezbollah Shiite terror group and Iranians are deployed.
Rami Abdel Rahman, the observatory chief, said the strikes injured some of these forces.
The targets near Damascus were still unclear.
There was no response from the Israel Defense Forces, which rarely comments on reported strikes.
Israel accuses Iran of seeking to set up a military presence in Syria that could be used to threaten the Jewish state.
The Israeli military has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria in recent years on targets linked to Iran, which is backing President Bashar Assad’s regime in the Syrian civil war.
The reported strikes came just hours after an Israeli satellite imagery analysis company said Syria’s entire S-300 air defense system appeared to be operational, indicating a greater threat to Israel’s ability to conduct airstrikes against Iranian and pro-Iranian forces in the country.
Until now, only three of the country’s four surface-to-air missile launchers had been seen fully erected at the Masyaf base in northwestern Syria.
Israel has threatened to destroy the S-300 system if it is used against its fighter jets, regardless of the potential blowback from Russia.
As reported by The Times of Israel