US denies Syria strike; Israel accused
AMMAN/CAIRO: Syrian state television said there were at least 14 casualties in what it initially suspected to be a United States missile attack on a major air base in central Syria but later pointed the finger at Israel.
The United States denied it had launched any air strikes against the country.
The Syrian state broadcaster furst said explosions were heard at the T4 airfield near Homs, which is close to the ancient city of Palmyra, in central Syria, and a main base for Iranianbacked militias.
A Syrian military source was quoted as saying air defences shot down eight missiles fired at the base, also known as the Tiyas air base, where defence analysts say there are large deployments of Russian forces, and where jets fly regular sorties to strike rebelheld areas.
The state broadcaster said there were several dead and wounded in the strike.
‘‘An aggression was perpetrated on T4 air base in several strikes that is most likely to be an American attack,’’ state television initially said in a news flash.
The US Pentagon said it was not conducting air strikes in Syria ‘‘at this time,’’ formally denying the Syrian state television report.
Syrian state media, citing a military source late last night, then said Israeli F15 war planes had conducted the overnight missile attack.
‘‘The Israeli aggression on the T4 airport was carried out with F15 planes that fired several missiles from above Lebanese land,’’ state news agency Sana said in Beirut.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britishbased monitor, said at least 14 people were killed including some fighters of various nationalities, in a
reference to Iranianbacked Shi’ite militia members, mainly from Iraq, Lebanon and Iran fighting alongside the Syrian army.
The base is in a strategic desert area, where Syria’s main gas fields are located. It had been under the control of Islamic State militants until the Syrian army and its allies
regained control last year after heavy Russian military intervention.
When asked about the explosions, an Israeli spokeswoman declined to comment.
Israel has struck Syrian army locations many times in the course of the conflict, hitting convoys and bases of Iranianbacked militias that fight alongside Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s forces.
Israel had previously said Syria had allowed Iran to set up a complex at the base to supply its ally, the militant Shi’ite group Hizbollah, with weapons.
The Israeli military last February accused Iranianbacked militias of operating at the base, from where it said an Iranian drone, that was shot down over northern Israel, had been launched.
Israel has long said Iran was expanding its influence in a belt of territory that stretches from the Iraqi border to the Lebanese border, where Israel says Iran supplies Hizbollah with arms.
Hizbollah and other Iranianbacked militias have a large military presence in Syria.
US President Donald Trump said there would be a ‘‘big price to pay’’ after medical aid groups reported dozens of civilians, including many children and women, were killed by poison gas in a besieged rebelheld town. The US launched a cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base a year ago in response to the killing of dozens of civilians in a sarin gas attack in an oppositionheld town in northwest Syria. Russia, President Bashar alAssad’s most powerful ally, called the reports fake. — Reuters
❛ When asked about
the explosions, an Israeli spokeswoman declined to comment