Click to see full-size image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
At least 20 people were killed or wounded late on February 6 when a series of Israeli strikes hit the central Syrian governorate of Homs.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency, citing a military source, said that Israeli warplanes launched missiles from the direction of the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, targeting several positions in Homs city and countryside. The source claimed Syrian air defenses shot down some of the Israeli missiles.
A number of civilians were killed and wounded in the Israeli strikes on Homs, the source said, adding that the strikes also caused damage to both public and private property.
Local sources told Reuters that the attack targeted several Syrian army outposts and an air base in Homs, with a Syrian military intelligence source familiar with the matter saying it targeted the Shayrat Air Base in the govenrorate’s eastern countryside.
Meanwhile, the pro-government Sham FM radio station said the areas struck included the affluent al-Malaab neighborhood and Hamra Street in Homs city. It said Israel also struck farmland in al-Waer, causing fires but no casualties there.
The Homs Health Directorate said that seven people were killed and at least 13 others were wounded as a result of the Israeli strikes.
Israel has significantly escalated its attacks on Syria since the outbreak of the war with the Hamas Movement and other Palestinian armed factions in the Gaza Strip.
Several of the recent Israeli attacks on Syria targeted commanders of the so-called Axis of Resistance, which is led by Iran. Last week, an advisor of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was killed when Israeli strikes hit the southern outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus.
War-torn Syria has largely refrained from responding to Israel’s repeated attacks in an attempt to avoid a dangerous confrontation.
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