According to Syrian state media, Israeli strikes targeted strategic sites in the province of Homs in central Syria on Sunday (November 13th). A military source, quoted by the official Sana agency, affirms that the strikes reached “Al-Chaayrate military airport”killing two soldiers and wounding three.
Syrian air defenses “intercepted hostile targets over the province of Homs”, added Sana. Syrian state television broadcast images showing the air defense systems intercepting missiles presented as those “Israeli aggression”.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) also reported explosions in the regime-controlled area of Al-Chaayrate airbase, saying four missiles were fired.
Hundreds of Israeli airstrikes since 2011
This area is home to military sites used by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime as well as Iran-backed groups, including Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah movement.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian territory since civil war erupted there in 2011, targeting government positions as well as Iranian-backed allied forces and Hezbollah fighters.
Israel rarely comments on its strikes on Syria, but has repeatedly said it would not allow its nemesis Iran to establish a foothold there.
Israeli strikes targeting the Al-Shaayrate base on November 8, 2021 injured two Syrian regime soldiers, according to Syrian state media.
At the end of October, four pro-Iranian fighters were killed during Israeli strikes on several positions near Damascus, said the OSDH, which relies on a vast network of sources in Syria.