Syrian missile falls in sea near Haifa as Israel bombs Homs

A rocket fell in the sea near Israel's Haifa city after being launched from Syria, according to Israeli state media.

The anti-aircraft missile flew over Israel and blew up in waters close to the northern city, the Israeli state's Kan broadcaster reported on Wednesday.

It is supposed that the projectile was an errand surface-to-air missile fired by Syrian air defences.

It happened during suspected Israeli airstrikes on Syria's Homs province.

Two civilians were among four people killed by the alleged Israeli bombing on Wednesday, which targeted a part of Syria where fighters loyal to Lebanon's Hezbollah are based, a monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that relies on sources on the ground, said the Israeli missiles struck an area near three villages in the west of Homs province.

The raid killed four people, including two civilians, said the war monitor.

The official Syrian regime news agency SANA, citing a military official, said two civilians had been killed and seven people wounded in the strikes that were conducted at dawn.

"The [Israeli] aggression resulted in the death of two civilians and injured six soldiers and one civilian," the military official was quoted as saying.

The strikes targeted positions in the central part of the country, it said, without giving further details on the location.

Syria's air defences "repelled the aggression and shot down most" of the missiles, SANA said, quoting the same source.

The Israeli military, which rarely acknowledges individual strikes on Syria, declined to comment on "reports in the foreign media".

Iran is attempting to reinforce its anti-air capacities across parts of Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria that Israel has reportedly been bombing, Israeli security officials have claimed.https://t.co/ZqcPAgUWkv

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) October 27, 2021

Israel has said repeatedly it will not allow neighbouring Syria to become a launchpad for its arch-foe Iran.

Since war broke out in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian territory, targeting regime positions as well as allied Iran-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters.

Similar strikes on 3 November hit positions held by the Syrian regime and its pro-Iranian allies near Damascus, said the Observatory.

On 30 October, five pro-Iranian militiamen were killed in an Israeli strike that destroyed Hezbollah and Iranian weapons and ammunition near the Syrian capital, the monitor said

An Israeli strike in mid-October killed nine pro-regime fighters near the T4 airbase east of Palmyra in central Syria, according to the same source.