Syria Says Israel Carried Out Rare Daylight Raid, Killing 2

Hana Levi Julian28 Elul 5783 – September 13, 2023

Photo Credit: Ofer Zidon / Flash 90

Israel Air Force Netz 107 F-16 (archive).

At least two “military personnel” were killed, and six others injured Wednesday in a rare daylight attack on military positions in the port city of Tartus, Syria.

The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) blamed “Israeli aggression” for the attack, adding there were “material losses” in addition to the human cost.

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The strike was aimed at “air defense positions in Tartous countryside,” the news outlet reported.

A military source quoted by SANA said at 5:22 pm local time, “the Israeli enemy carried out aggression with bursts of rockets from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea, targeting some of our air defense positions in Tartus.”

According to unconfirmed reports by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), three soldiers were killed in the strike, but added their “nationalities and affiliation” were unknown.

The organization added that eight people were wounded, including five Syrian air defense officers.

Syrian state media likewise carefully avoided identifying the nationalities of the “military personnel” who were killed.

The SOHR said the strike was aimed at “two weapons warehouses of the Lebanese Hezbollah near Al-Jamasah and Deir Hajar villages in southern Tartus and a base of the regime’s air-defense forces in Kartu village, which is located nearly ten kilometers away from the targeted first site.”