SOHR: Israeli airstrikes target positions in Syria

Israel has launched fresh airstrikes in places in Syria where Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have a presence, a human rights watchdog group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said heavy explosions were reported late Saturday in the vicinity of the city of Masyaf in Syria’s western Hama province.

Several missiles hit targets in the area where the Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah militias are located, according to the Observatory.

“There are warehouses, research centers to improve missiles and drones. However, no casualties have yet been reported,” the UK-based monitoring group said in a statement.

The missile strike was Israel’s eighth attack on targets inside Syria so far this year, the monitor added, the most recent being in early March when explosions were reported near Damascus airport.

The state news agency SANA, citing a military source, said that the Syrian air defense intercepted a series of missiles and that the “Israeli air aggression” had inflicted only “material” damage.

“At about 7:45 p.m. [16:45 GMT] on Saturday, the Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from northern Lebanon targeting some points in the central region when army air defenses confronted it and shot down a series of missiles,” SANA reported.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes against targets inside government-controlled Syria over the years, but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.

Tel Aviv has indicated it is targeting bases of Iran-allied militias such as Hezbollah, which has fighters deployed in Syria on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the decade-long civil war.

The Iranian presence on its northern border is a red line for Israel, justifying its attacks on targets inside Syria.

In December, Israeli warplanes fired missiles at the Syrian port of Latakia, a rare attack on the vital import facility in the war-torn country. The airstrike damaged shipping containers but caused no casualties, according to reports.

 

 

Source: World Nation News