Israeli strikes near Syria-Lebanon border deal ‘large’ damage: State media

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Israeli airstrikes in Syria’s Homs province near the Lebanese border on Wednesday night inflicted “large” material damage, state media said. A war monitor reported that the strikes injured 15 Syrian regime soldiers. 

“At around 8:05 pm today, the Israeli enemy launched an air attack from the direction of Lebanese territory, targeting bridges on the Orontes River and roads on the Syria-Lebanon border in the Qusayr area of Homs,” Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said, citing a military source. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported that the strikes injured 15 Syrian army soldiers in an initial toll.

SANA added that “large” material damage was reported in strikes on the infrastructure, rendering it out of service. 

Three military checkpoints and at least six bridges were targeted in the raids, according to the Observatory.

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 148 strikes on Syrian territory since the beginning of the year, killing 284 combatants and wounding 245 more, according to data from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor. The strikes have also killed 55 civilians.

On Monday, seven people, including women and children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Damascus, in an area known as a stronghold of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).