The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Israel blamed for assault on air base
Russia and the Syrian military have blamed Israel for a pre-dawn missile attack on a major air base in central Syria that reportedly killed 14 people, including Iranians.
It comes as international condemnation grew over a suspected poison gas attack over the weekend that was blamed on the Syrian government.
Opposition activists said 40 people died in the chemical attack, blaming Syrian government forces.
Russia’s defence ministry said two Israeli aircraft targeted the T4 air base in Homs province, firing eight missiles.
It said Syria shot down five of them while the other three landed in the western part of the base.
Syrian state TV quoted an unnamed military official as saying that Israeli F-15 warplanes fired several missiles at T4. It gave no further details.
Israel’s foreign ministry had no comment when asked about reports of the air strikes, which did not appear to be related to Saturday night’s alleged chemical weapons attack.
Since 2012, Israel has struck inside Syria more than 100 times, mostly targeting suspected weapons convoys destined for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has been fighting alongside Syrian government forces.
Most recently, Israel hit the same T4 base in February, after it said an Iranian drone that had violated Israeli airspace took off from the base.
The base, which was used as a launching pad for counter-offensive attacks against Islamic State militants who were at one point stationed close by, is near the Shayrat air base, which was targeted by US missiles last year in response to a chemical weapons attack.
Syria’s state news agency SANA initially said the attack on the T4 air base was probably “an American aggression” but Pentagon spokesman Christopher Sherwood quickly denied the US was behind the strike and the agency then dropped the accusation, blaming Israel instead.
SANA said the missile attack resulted in a number of casualties but provided no specific figures.