Israeli strikes target air base, Syria says

DAMASCUS — Syria yesterday accused Israel of targeting an air base in the central Homs province, saying its defences hit a jet involved in the attack.

"Our air defenses are responding to an Israeli aggression and intercepting a number of missiles targeting the airport, hitting one of the attacking planes and forcing the rest to leave the airspace," the official SANA news agency quoted a military source as saying.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP that a missile bombardment killed an unspecified number of "Iranian and pro-regime fighters" at the T-4 base and was "likely to be Israeli".

In addition to the Syrian army, Iranian fighters and Lebanese Hezbollah troops are also stationed at the air base, according to the Observatory.

The facility has previously been targeted by repeated strikes Damascus blamed on Israel.

An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the latest incident, saying: "We do not comment on reports in the foreign media."

Syrian state outlets published a video of a flash in the dark sky, claiming it showed the air defenses responding to the bombardment.