MEE Staff
Middle East Eye / October 3, 2023
Israeli strike in eastern Syria marks a shift from previous strikes focused on Damascus and Aleppo.
Two Syrian soldiers were wounded following an Israeli air strike on late Monday night in eastern Syria, Syrian state media said.
The attack on military posts in Syria’s Deir al-Zor region represents a departure from previous Israeli actions in Syria, which had largely concentrated on Damascus and Aleppo.
Syria’s state news agency Sana, quoting military sources, said the latest attack occurred just before midnight on Monday.
“The Israeli enemy carried out an aerial act of aggression on a number of Syrian armed forces’ positions in the vicinity of Deir al-Zor,” Sana reported.
The attack comes just two days after a suspected Israeli attack near Damascus targeting an alleged Iranian shipment of weapons making its way to Lebanon.
Over the course of the year, Israeli strikes in Syria have mainly targeted Aleppo International Airport and the airport in the Syrian capital of Damascus.
The Israeli military has made no comment following the latest attacks, a stance it has maintained following previous assaults on Syria.
Israel has conducted hundreds of air strikes in Syria since 2011, targeting Syrian troops, Iran-backed fighters and Hezbollah.
However, attacks targeting airports and paralyzing aviation have become more frequent over the last year.
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Latest Israeli air attack on Syria injures two soldiers: State media
Al-Jazeera / October 3, 2023
Syrian state news agency reported that two were injured and material damage was sustained in an air raid by Israeli forces.
Two Syrian soldiers have been injured following an Israeli air attack on military posts in Syria’s eastern Deir Aal-Zor region, state media reported, citing a military source.
Syria’s state news agency SANA said the latest attack by Israel was carried out at 23:50pm local time (20:50 GMT) on Monday.
“The Israeli enemy launched an air attack on some of our armed forces’ sites in the vicinity of Deir al-Zor, and the aggression led to the injury of two soldiers and some material losses,” SANA reported, citing a military source.
The United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three explosions were reported near the positions of Iranian-backed armed groups in Deir al-Zor near the Syrian-Iraq border in an attack carried out by unidentified warplanes.
“Iranian militias are deployed near the targeted positions, where the members move from Iraq to Syria and vice versa through illegal routes,” the observatory said, noting that drones attacked targets in the province in early September.
The target was a house where weapons were reportedly stored in Deir al-Zor City, the observatory said.
Israel has for years carried out unacknowledged attacks in Syria against what it has described as Iran-linked targets amid Tehran’s growing influence in the country since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war that started in 2011.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on the latest attack, the Reuters news agency reported.
Late last month, Israel’s military said that its tanks had destroyed two Syrian structures in the Golan Heights. The tanks attacked a location on the Syrian side of the demarcation line between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the west and Syrian-controlled territory to the east, the Israeli military said.
Hundreds of thousands of people have died and millions have been made homeless since protests against Assad’s rule first erupted in 2011 and have since developed into a civil war that has drawn in foreign powers, including Russia, and left Syria carved into zones of control.
SOURCE: AL-JAZEERA, REUTERS
