16 people are killed in Israeli strikes on Syria, according to Syrian official media
The bloodiest Israeli attack confirmed by Syrian officials since the attack on the Iranian embassy complex in Damascus in April, Israeli airstrikes in western Syria killed sixteen people and injured several more throughout the course of the night, according to state media in Syria on Monday.
Israel, which usually says nothing in response to news of strikes in Syria, did not respond right away.
Israeli raids on Sunday began at approximately 11:20 p.m. (2020 GMT), according to the Syrian state news agency SANA, which cited a military source. The report did not specify which military locations in the central region were hit, only that Israel had begun the strikes.
According to the source, several of the missiles were shot down by Syrian air defenses. 36 individuals had been hurt, six of them were in critical condition, according to a local health official quoted by SANA.
According to two local intelligence sources, a significant military research facility for chemical weapons manufacture at Masyaf, in the Hama province close to the Mediterranean coast, has been targeted multiple times. They claimed that a group of Iranian military specialists engaged in the manufacture of weaponry were thought to reside there.
The target, according to a prominent regional military source in Tehran and Damascus, was a well-known Syrian research facility, refuting reports that it was a chemical weapons plant.
Declaring the attack to be an act of flagrant aggression, the Syrian Foreign Ministry denounced it. It added in a statement obtained by SANA that it had inflicted “material damage to certain residential areas” in addition to the 16 dead and 36 injured.
Speaking on behalf of the foreign minister, Nasser Kanaani stated that Tehran vehemently denounced the “criminal attack” in Syria.
When asked about the attack during a press conference, he said, “We do not confirm what was reported by media outlets linked to the Zionist regime (Israel) about an attack on an Iranian center or a center under Iran’s protection.”
Additionally, according to Syrian official media, two fires were started by the strikes and were being put out by firemen.
Israel has been attacking what it has called Iranian or Iran-backed sites in Syria for years. During the country’s civil war, Iranian military and militias with support from Tehran were widely deployed to assist President Bashar al-Assad.
After the October 7 Hamas-led offensive on Israel from Gaza, it has intensified the campaign; on April 1, for example, it targeted the Iranian embassy compound and murdered key Iranian officers, including one of Tehran’s most senior generals.
