Syria says Israeli jets hit targets in Homs and Damascus

Syria said Israeli jets attacked several military sites near the capital Damascus and the central city of Homs early Monday, killing four civilians, including an infant.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said Israel launched strikes both from the air and from sea, which targeted Iranian-linked bases near Homs and at least 10 targets near Damascus, including a base where the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp forces are headquartered and a weapons research center.

Israel did not comment.

State news agency SANA said that Syrian air defense had intercepted several of the incoming missiles that were fired from Lebanese airspace.

The report said four civilians, including a “month-old baby,” were killed and 21 people injured in explosions in Sahnaya, a neighborhood of Damascus. It blamed the deaths on “Zionist aggression.”

SANA gave no further details on the sites targeted.

However, the Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes had targeted a research center and a military airport west of the city of Homs where the Hezbollah Shiite terror group and Iranians are deployed.

Rami Abdel Rahman, the observatory chief, said the strikes injured some of these forces.

In the Damascus area, the monitor said strikes targeted the 91st Brigade base where the IRGC were headquartered and a research facility in Jamraya.

Jamraya, which lies just over 10 kilometers (seven miles) northwest of Damascus, is home to several military positions and a branch of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC).

A Google Earth view of a Syrian scientific facility in Jamraya, near Damascus, before it was allegedly struck by Israeli warplanes in late January 2013. (photo credit: image capture from Google Earth)

The US has repeatedly imposed sanctions on the SSRC for its alleged role in chemical weapons production. France has also imposed sanctions on the agency.

Israeli airstrikes reportedly hit the facility in May 2013 and again in February 2018.

The monitor said that at some sites large blasts were caused by exploding ammunition depots and they had noted lots of ambulances heading to the sites.

There was no response from the Israel Defense Forces, which rarely comments on reported strikes.

Israel accuses Iran of seeking to set up a military presence in Syria that could be used to threaten the Jewish state.

The Israeli military has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria in recent years on targets linked to Iran, which is backing President Bashar Assad’s regime in the Syrian civil war.

The reported strikes came just hours after an Israeli satellite imagery analysis company said Syria’s entire S-300 air defense system appeared to be operational, indicating a greater threat to Israel’s ability to conduct airstrikes against Iranian and pro-Iranian forces in the country.

Satellite photos released by ImageSat International appear to show all four missile launchers of the S-300 air defense system in the raised position in the northwestern Syrian city of Masyaf on June 30, 2019. (ImageSat International)

Until now, only three of the country’s four surface-to-air missile launchers had been seen fully erected at the Masyaf base in northwestern Syria.

Israel has threatened to destroy the S-300 system if it is used against its fighter jets, regardless of the potential blowback from Russia.