Israeli strikes injure soldiers in Aleppo, Idlib: State media

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A number of Syrian soldiers were injured early Saturday morning in Israeli airstrikes on the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib, state media reported. 

“At around 00:45 after midnight, the Israeli enemy launched an air attack from the direction of southeast Aleppo, targeting a number of sites in the countryside of Aleppo and Idlib,” Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said, citing a military source. 

The strikes “led to the injury of a number of soldiers,” SANA added.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on regime-controlled areas in Syria through its over a decade-long civil war, often claiming to target pro-Iran militias, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah group that supports the Syrian army. 

The strikes have increased since October 7 of last year, when Palestinian Hamas launched an unprecedented, large-scale attack on Israel, which retaliated by invading Gaza. The conflict has now spread to Lebanon.

Israel rarely confirms strikes attributed to it in Syria, but has warned repeatedly that it will not tolerate arch-rival Iran gaining a foothold in the country. 

Israel has carried out 141 strikes on Syrian territory since the beginning of the year, killing 274 combatants and wounding 204 more, according to data from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor. The strikes have also killed 51 civilians.