DAMASCUS: Syrian security source says Israeli ‘aggression’, launched from Lebanese airspace, targeted military instalments.
Israeli missiles have killed at least 14 people in central Syria, state media outlets have reported.
The attack on Sunday night sparked a fire and caused material damage near the city of Masyaf, in the Hama province, according to SANA, Syria’s official news agency. The update, which also reported 43 injured, raises the toll of five dead and 19 wounded reported earlier.
“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.
The Israeli military commonly does not comment on its operations in Syria.
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.
A local health official quoted by SANA said 43 people had been injured, including several critically, in the strikes.
The director of the public hospital in Masyaf said the casualties were civilians.
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.
Agencies

Agencies