Two killed, three wounded in Israeli strikes on Syria's Tartus and Hama provinces
Israeli airstrikes targeting a weapons depot in Syria on Sunday killed two pro-Iran fighters and wounded three soldiers, a war monitor said.
"Israeli strikes targeted a weapons depot belonging to pro-Iran forces located between Tartus and Hama provinces," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"Two pro-Iran fighters were killed and three Syrian soldiers were wounded," he told AFP.
Syrian state news agency SANA, citing a military source, reported that "at around 7:15 am (0415 GMT), the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack, firing missiles from the direction of north Lebanon with targets in the Tartus and Hama countryside".
قصف إسرائيلي جديد يطال صباح اليوم مستودعات إيرانية بريف طرطوس في منطقة حير عباس غرب مصياف على طريق وادي العيون.
— العميد الركن أحمد رحال (@rahhalahmad63) March 12, 2023
وما زلنا بانتظار بيان أسدي إيراني أن الرد سيكون بالزمان والمكان المناسبين. pic.twitter.com/URvKsENZvW
SANA did not specify the target but said the attack "wounded three soldiers and caused some material losses", adding that Syrian air defences intercepted some of the missiles.
The Israeli military said it did not comment "on reports in the foreign media".
Since Syria's civil war erupted in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of often deadly strikes against its northern neighbour, targeting troops belonging to Bashar al-Assad's regime, as well as allied Iran-backed forces and Lebanon's Hezbollah fighters.
Last week, Israel struck Aleppo airport, causing significant damage that halted flights to and from Syria's second city, which is still reeling from the devastating February 6 earthquake that hit the country, as well as neighbouring Turkey. The strike killed three people.
According to the war monitor, fifteen people in the Syrian capital of Damascus were reportedly killed in February following a deadly Israeli missile attack, which struck a building in the Kafr Sousa neighbourhood near a heavily guarded security complex close to Iranian installations.
The Israeli military rarely comments on individual strikes against Syria but has vowed repeatedly to keep up its air campaign to stop arch-foe Iran from consolidating its presence.