Israeli strikes in central Syria kill seven – war monitor

Smoke billows following an Israeli airstrike targeting south of the capital Damascus, on July 20, 2020. Israeli strikes south of the Syrian capital wounded seven Syrian soldiers, state media reported, in an attack which a war monitor said hit several positions of regime forces and Iran-backed militias. FILE PHOTO/Agence France-Presse

BEIRUT — Israeli strikes in central Syria killed at least seven people late Sunday, including three civilians, a war monitor reported.

Since the start of the civil war in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes there, targeting pro-Iranian groups in particular.

“The number of dead in the Israeli strikes on the Masyaf region stands at seven, namely three civilians, including a man and his son who were in a car, and four unidentified soldiers,” said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a vast network of sources inside the country.

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The attack also wounded at least 15 others and destroyed military facilities in the area, the Observatory said.

“Thirteen violent explosions rang out in the zone housing scientific research centers in Masyaf where pro-Iranian groups and weapons development experts are present,” the group said in an earlier statement.

The Syrian state news agency Sana had previously reported five killed and 19 wounded near Masyaf, citing a medical source.

“Around 11:20 pm (2020 GMT) on Sunday, the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack from the northwest of Lebanon targeting a number of military sites in the central region,” Sana reported, citing a military source.

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“Our air defense shot down some missiles.”

Israeli air raids in Syria have intensified since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.

Israeli authorities rarely comment on individual strikes in Syria, but have repeatedly said they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence there.

At the end of August, three pro-Iranian fighters were killed in the central region of Homs in strikes attributed to Israel, the Observatory said.

A few days later, the Israeli military said it had killed an unspecified number of fighters belonging to Hamas ally Islamic Jihad in a strike in Syria near the Lebanese border.