Israel allegedly strikes Syria area believed to house Iran forces; 14 killed, 43 hurt

By Emanuel Fabian, 

Agencies and ToI StaffToday, 4:53 am

A fire sparked by an alleged Israeli strike in the Masyaf area of central Syria, late September 8, 2024. (SANA)

A series of alleged Israeli strikes hit multiple areas in central Syria late Sunday, killing at least 14 people, wounding 43 and sparking fires, Syrian state media claimed.

State news agency SANA reported that Syrian air defenses “confronted an aggression that targeted several points in the central region,” damaging a highway in the Hama province and sparking fires that firefighting teams were battling to control early Monday.

At least 14 dead and 43 wounded people, six in critical condition, were brought to the Masyaf National Hospital, SANA said, citing hospital head Faysal Haydar. It did not elaborate on their identities.

The Masyaf area, west of Hama, is thought to be used as a base for Iranian forces and pro-Iranian militias, and has been repeatedly targeted in recent years in attacks widely attributed to Israel.

It contains the Scientific Studies and Research Center, known as CERS or SSRC, which according to Israel is used by Iranian forces to manufacture precision surface-to-surface missiles.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based opposition war monitor, reported that one of the strikes targeted a scientific research center in Masyaf and other sites where “Iranian militias and experts are stationed to develop weapons in Syria.” Local media also reported strikes around the coastal city of Tartous.

SOHR, run by a single person, has regularly been accused by Syrian war analysts of false reporting and inflating casualty numbers as well as inventing them wholesale.

There was no immediate comment on the strike from Israel, which rarely acknowledges individual operations in Syria.

Israel has been carrying out airstrikes inside Syria since the outbreak of that country’s civil war in 2011, mainly targeting attempts to transfer weapons to the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah terror group or to keep Iranian fighters themselves from gaining a foothold near Israel’s border.

Since Hamas’s brutal October 7 massacre, which saw some 1,200 people killed in Israel and 251 kidnapped, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iranian-backed terror targets in Syria and has also struck Syrian army air defenses and some Syrian forces.

Hezbollah has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israel since it started launching attacks from Lebanon a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas’s terror onslaught, which sparked the war in Gaza.