New Israeli strikes in Syria target pro-Iranian militias
The attack was Israel’s first strike on Syria since President Joe Biden took office.
Israeli F35 I fighter jets take part in an air defence exercise at the Ovda air force base, north of the Israeli city of Eilat. (AFP)
DAMASCUS – Israeli warplanes fired several missiles in central Syria early Friday targeting pro-Iranian militia sites.
“Israeli fighter jets flying over Lebanon struck at least five positions of Iranian-backed militias and the Lebanese Hezbollah nearby Hama city and the Syria’s middle sector,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
SOHR added that “shrapnel of missiles fired by regime air-defences in an attempt to intercept the Israeli airstrikes, hit the residential neighbourhood of Kazu in the north-western part of Hama city, which killed a family of four persons.”
Syrian state media said Syrian regime air defences confronted “an Israeli aggression” in the region of Hama on Friday that killed four people from the same family.
State-news agency SANA quoted an unnamed military official as saying the attack took place shortly before dawn when Israeli warplanes flew over neighbouring Lebanon.
Israel has launched hundreds of strikes against Iran-linked military targets in Syria over the years but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.
The Syrian military official said the attack was aimed at several targets in and near the central province of Hama. It added that Syrian air defence units shot down most of the missiles.
It was Israel’s first strike on Syria since President Joe Biden took office.
Tension has been high in the Middle East over the past weeks as many feared retaliation for the US killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Qassem Soleimani last year in Baghdad.
On January 13, Israeli warplanes carried out intense airstrikes in eastern Syria apparently targeting positions and arms depots of Iran-backed forces. At least 57 fighters were killed and dozens were wounded, according to a Syrian opposition war monitoring group.
The Israeli airstrikes, said SOHR, targeted “positions, weapons warehouses, ammunition and missiles depots affiliated to regime forces, the Lebanese Hezbollah, Iranian forces and their proxy militias, mainly ‘Fatemiyoun Brigade’, in the area between Deir Ezzor city and the Syria-Iraq border in Al-Bokamal desert.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it recorded 39 Israeli strikes inside Syria in 2020 that hit 135 targets, including military posts, warehouses or vehicles.
Israel views Iranian entrenchment on its northern frontier as a red line, and has repeatedly struck Iran-linked facilities and weapons convoys destined for Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group.
The strikes also come amid intensifying low-altitude Israeli warplane missions in Lebanese skies that have caused jitters among residents.
Source: New Israeli strikes in Syria target pro-Iranian militias | | AW