At least 14 people were killed late last night in multiple Israeli strikes targeting the vicinity of Masyaf, a city in Syria’s Hama province, Syria’s state news agency reported earlier today. Two regional intelligence sources said a major military research centre for chemical arms production located near Misyaf had been hit several times by the Israelis. It is believed to house a team of Iranian military experts involved in weapons production.
There was no immediate comment from Israel, which typically does not comment on specific reports of strikes in Syria.
Since the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians and soldiers, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iranian-backed militia targets in Syria and has also struck Syrian army air defences and some Syrian forces.
“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),” a military source told the SANA news agency.
“Our air defence systems confronted the aggression’s missiles and shot down some of them,” the source added, without providing further details.
A local health official quoted by SANA said 43 people had been injured, including several critically, in the strikes.
Syria’s state media also reported that the strikes caused two fires, which firefighters were working to extinguish.
In the most high-profile attack on Syria since the war in Gaza began, suspected Israeli warplanes bombed Iran’s embassy in April, a strike that Iran said killed seven military advisers, including three senior commanders.
The Israeli Air Force had targeted a Hezbollah arms depot in eastern Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley on August 18, the Israeli military said. The strike did not result in any fatalities, two security sources said. Lebanon’s health ministry although claims that eight were wounded and the injured included six Lebanese citizens and two Syrian children. Tensions have been high on Israel’s northern border after a Hezbollah strike claimed the lives of 12 Druze children as they played.
Team Bharatshakti
(With inputs from Reuters)
