Al-Jazeera / September 9, 2024
Syrian security source says Israeli ‘aggression’, launched from Lebanese airspace, targeted military instalments.
Israeli missiles have killed at least 18 people in central Syria, and dozens of others have been left wounded, the health minister has said.
A military source told the SANA news agency that “at around 23:20 on Sunday evening, the Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of northwestern Lebanon, targeting a number of military sites in the central region [of Syria].”
“Our air defence systems confronted the aggression’s missiles and shot down some of them,” the source added, without providing further details.
Speaking to reporters, Syrian Health Minister Hassan al-Ghabbash described the strikes as a “brutal and barbaric aggression.” He said 18 people were killed and nearly 40 people were wounded.
Minister of Electricity Mohammad al-Zamel said the strikes had also caused “truly significant” damage to water and electricity infrastructure.
“This brutal attack targeted civilian targets, and the martyrs were mostly civilians, as were the wounded,” he said.
The attack on Sunday night also sparked a fire and caused material damage near the city of Masyaf, in the Hama province, according to SANA, Syria’s official news agency.
Two regional intelligence sources said a major military research centre for chemical arms production located near Masyaf had been hit several times, Reuters reported. A team of Iranian military experts involved in weapons production was believed to be working at the site, the news agency added.
Local media also reported strikes around the coastal city of Tartous, which the observatory said were the result of air defence missiles falling.
On Monday afternoon, a charred car remained at the scene of one strike and smoke was still rising from some spots where fires had been put out.
The Israeli military commonly does not comment on its operations in Syria.
‘Harsh punishment’
Israeli jets have often launched attacks against Syria from Lebanon, likely in a bid to avoid Syrian airspace where multiple regional and international forces, including those of Russia and the United States, operate.
Throughout Syria’s 13-year civil war, Israel has regularly carried out air raids in the country – mostly targeting Iran-linked sites.
Sunday’s attack comes amid growing regional tensions, with Iranian officials still pledging to respond to the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.
Iran, which maintains a military presence in Syria, had promised “harsh punishment” for Israel over the killing, but no Iranian attack has materialized more than 40 days after the assassination.
Last week, Mohsen Chizari, a top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander, said Iran’s response is coming “in due time”.
Iran launched a direct attack on Israel with hundreds of drones and missiles in April in response to the Israeli bombing of an Iranian diplomatic facility in Damascus.
Israeli and US air defences in the region helped shoot down most of the projectiles, minimizing the damage of the attack.
Separately, Hezbollah carried out its own attack against Israel on August 25, responding to the killing of one of its top commanders in an Israeli air raid in Beirut which also killed several civilians.
Israel had said that it thwarted the operation with a preemptive attack, but the Iran-aligned Lebanese group said it successfully hit an Israeli military intelligence site near Tel Aviv.
Cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel have continued on a near daily basis. Hezbollah says it is targeting military sites in northern Israel and Syria’s occupied Golan Heights in support of Palestinians in Gaza, where the ongoing Israeli offensive has killed more than 40,900 people.
The Lebanese group has promised to continue its military operations until the war on Gaza ends, while Israeli officials have promised to push Hezbollah off the country’s border, including by all-out war if necessary.
Source: Al-Jazeera
_________
Israeli strikes in Syria kill at least 25, war monitor says
Peter Beaumont
The Guardian / September 9, 2024
State media says more than 40 injured as military research centre for arms production hit, according to sources
Israeli jets have launched a substantial strike on targets in Syria, killing at least 25 people, according to an opposition war monitor that said it was one of the most violent such attacks in years.
The main target appeared to be a military research centre in Masyaf associated with Syria’s chemical and ballistic missiles program, but explosions were also heard in Damascus, Homs and Tartus. Syrian state media had put the death toll at 16 with 40 wounded.
The attack on Sunday night struck targets associated with pro-Iranian militias as well as the “scientific research facility” near Hama, reportedly run by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
The facility was one of several the International Atomic Energy Agency reportedly asked for access to following the 2007 destruction in airstrikes of Syria’s suspected Al-Kibar nuclear reactor on the Euphrates. Israel confirmed in 2018 its forces had been responsible.
The Syrian foreign ministry condemned the attacks as an act of blatant aggression but there was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria in recent years, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations. The strikes often target Syrian forces or Iranian-backed groups.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, described the Sunday night strike as “one of the most violent Israeli attacks” in Syria in years and said it was carried out with 14 missiles. It said among the people killed were “five civilians, four soldiers and intelligence personnel and 13 Syrians working with pro-Iran groups”.
The Israeli strikes, it said, “targeted the scientific research area in Masyaf […] destroying buildings and military centres” and sites “where pro-Iran groups and weapons development experts are stationed”.
The observatory’s head, Rami Abdel Rahman, said Iranian experts “developing arms including precision missiles and drones” worked in Masyaf. At least four of those who were killed were reported to be civilians.
Israel has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment in Syria, particularly since Syria is a key route for Iran to send weapons to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah that has been clashing with Israel over its northern border for the past 11 months against the backdrop of the Gaza war.
Israeli raids on Iranian-backed militia targets in Syria surged after 7 October attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians and soldiers that triggered the Gaza conflict, then eased somewhat after a strike on 1 April blamed on Israel hit the Iranian consular building in Damascus. That attack, the most high-profile attack on Syria since the war in Gaza began, killed seven military advisers, including three senior commanders, according to Iran.
Israel has also struck Syrian army air defences and some Syrian forces.
A Syrian military source confirmed the Sunday night attack to the Sana news agency. “At around 23:20 on Sunday evening, the Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of north-western Lebanon, targeting a number of military sites in the central region [of Syria],” the source said.
“Our air defence systems confronted the aggression’s missiles and shot down some of them,” the source added, without providing further details.
Syria’s state media also reported that the strikes caused two fires, which firefighters were working to extinguish.
Condemning the attack, Nasser Kanani, spokesperson for the Iranian foreign ministry, told a media briefing: “We strongly condemn this criminal attack by the Zionist regime on Syrian soil.”
Syria has sought to stay out of the Israel-Hamas conflict that has raised fears of a broader regional war across the Middle East.
Masyaf was also targeted by Israel in 2017 amid repeated claims that it was used to store short-range surface-to-surface missiles and chemical munitions.
Peter Beaumont is a senior international reporter
