ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Israeli airstrikes targeting Syria’s Tartus and Hama provinces on Sunday morning injured at least three Syrian soldiers, state media reported.
“Around 7:15 today morning, the Israeli enemy launched an aerial aggression with missiles from the direction of northern Lebanon, with targets in the countryside of Tartus and Hama. Our aerial defence fought back the missiles and took down some of them [the missiles]”, reported Syrian state media SANA reported, citing a military source.
This marks the second suspected Israeli attack on Syria since the beginning of March. On Monday, a drone attack on Aleppo International Airport killed three people and rendered the airport out of service as a result of material damage.
UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that the strikes had targeted a weapons depot of Iranian-backed militia. It added that two people were killed in the attack.
Head of SOHR, Rami Abdulrahman told Rudaw English on Sunday afternoon that two pro-Iranian fighters and one Syrian army officer were killed in the attack.
This is the fifth such attack on Syria since the beginning of the year, according to the war monitor.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, claiming to target Iran-backed fighters in Syria.
Israel rarely comments on airstrikes attributed to it in Syria but it has repeatedly warned that it would not tolerate an increase in Iranian presence.
At least 15 people were killed in an Israeli attack in February targeting “Iranian militia and Lebanese Hezbollah” near an Iranian cultural centre outside Damascus.
Missile strikes on Damascus International Airport in January killed at least four people, including two Iranian militia members.
Iran and Israel have been engaged in a shadow war consisting of long-running covert attacks on Iranian military and nuclear facilities, as well as sabotage and cyber-attacks. Iranian fighters are also frequently targeted in suspected Israeli strikes in Syria.
By Azhi Rasul
Updated at 1:54pm with death toll
