Israeli warplanes kill 10 in Syria
JERUSALEM: Israeli warplanes struck Iran-linked targets in Syria overnight ater troops uncovered roadside bombs along the frontier in the Golan Heights, the Israeli military said on Wednesday. Syrian state-media said the strikes killed three Syrian soldiers.
A Syrian war monitoring group said the strikes killed 10, including the three Syrian soldiers and at least five Iranians.
The report could not be independently verified and there was no immediate comment from Iran.
The Israeli military said the improvised explosive devices had been placed near one of its positions in the Golan Heights by a “Syrian squad led by Iranian forces.”
Israel said it struck military targets belonging to Iran’s elite Quds force and the Syrian military overnight, including “storage facilities, headquarters and military compounds,” as well as Syrian anti-aircrat missile bateries.
Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said the strikes targeted the Iranian military headquarters in Syria at the Damascus airport, a secret facility that hosts visiting Iranian military officers and the Syrian army’s 7th Division, which oversees the Syrian side of the Golan Heights.
He added that Iran’s Quds force is embedded with the 7th Division.
Syrian state media quoted an unnamed military official as saying the strikes killed three soldiers, wounded a fourth and caused material damage.
The report added that Syrian air defenses shot down some of the Israeli missiles before they hit their targets. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes hit an air defense center, posts and ammunition warehouses for the Iranian-allied militias in Syria at the Damascus airport and its surrounding area and other targets to the south of the capital.
The Observatory said a total of 10 people were killed, including at least five suspected Iranians, believed to be affiliated with the Quds Force.
Separately, clashes in the Syrian desert between Russia-backed Syrian government forces and Daesh militants killed 11 regime loyalists on Wednesday, the Observatory said. A group of militants on Wednesday ambushed a Syrian regime convoy deployed to the desert to sweep it for jihadist hideouts, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The subsequent clashes killed at least 11 regime and pro-government fighters, including a Syrian army general, the monitor added.