DAMASCUS: At least five Syrian soldiers were injured in an Israeli air strike near the western city of Homs on Sunday morning, Syria’s state news agency SANA said.
The air strike was Israel’s third in recent days after Syria was targeted on March 30 and March 31, according to the news agency.
SANA said on Sunday that today at around 00:35 (2135 GMT), the Israeli enemy conducted an air strike from northeast of Beirut, targeting positions in Homs and its province.
Syria’s air defence intercepted several missiles, but five of its soldiers were injured and some material damage was reported, SANA reported, citing a military source.
Britain-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that the air strike targeted several military positions and installations of Syrian government forces and pro-Iran groups in Homs.
The NGO said that blasts rocked the city and a blaze broke out in a research centre, with ambulances heading to the attack scene.
Observatory director Rami Abdul Rahman told AFP that in addition to the five injured Syrian soldiers, several Iranian-affiliated fighters in the research centre were previously killed in the strikes.
An officer from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards was killed in an Israeli strike in Syria on March 31, a website affiliated with the Iranian Guards said.
Israel carried out seven air strikes in Syria earlier, according to the Observatory, which has an extensive network of sources in Syria.
While Israel seldom comments on the strikes it conducts in Syria, it has repeatedly said it would not allow its arch-foe Iran to extend its footprint in the war-torn neighbouring country.
Last month, an Israeli air strike killed at least 15 people in a Damascus that also houses state security agencies.
Last week, the war monitor said that an Israeli missile strike demolished a suspected arms depot allegedly used by Iran-backed militias at Syria’s Aleppo airport.
On March 7, at least three people were killed in an Israeli strike on the Aleppo airport that put it out of service before it was reopened three days later.
