AMMAN (Reuters) – Israeli missiles struck Syria’s Homs, Syrian state media reported on Wednesday, with local sources saying the attacks targeted several Syrian army outposts and an airbase in the area.
Syrian air defenses shot down a number of missiles, state media said, without giving details on the targets hit.
Since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians and soldiers, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iranian-backed militia targets in Syria and also struck Syrian army air defences and some Syrian forces.
The attacks targeted the Shuyrat airbase and the several locations on outskirts of Homs, according to a Syrian military intelligence source familiar with the matter.
Israel has for years carried out attacks on what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran’s influence has grown since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in a civil war that started in 2011.
Fighters allied with Iran, including Hezbollah, now hold sway in vast areas in eastern, southern and northwestern Syria and in several suburbs around the capital.
(Reporting by Enas Alashray and Suleiman al Khalidi; Editing by Chris Reese and Lincoln Feast.)
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