Israeli missile strikes have targeted a research center and military base in the northern province of Aleppo, Syrian state media said May 4, in the fifth such strike in two weeks on suspected Iranian positions.
The Syrian Army said Israel struck a military barracks in Al-Safirah in the eastern Aleppo countryside. Earlier, state media said a research center had been targeted.
Army air defenses “confronted the hostile missiles” and a damage assessment was being carried out, SANA state media reported.
Separately, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, reported suspected Israeli warplanes hit Iranian forces and allied militia in eastern Syria near Albu Kamal on the border with Iraq.
Israeli airstrikes in eastern Syria killed 14 Iranian and Iraqi fighters and wounded others, some seriously, an opposition war monitoring group said Tuesday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the late Monday strikes in eastern Deir el-Zour province targeted positions of Iranian and Iran-backed fighters. There was no immediate comment from Israel. The Observatory says 14 Iranian and Iraqi fighters and wounded others, some seriously.
Western and Israeli intelligence say Iranian forces and allied militias use the eastern Syrian desert bordering Iraq to transfer fighters and advanced weapons systems to support the Syrian government and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
In Aleppo Province, Iranian forces and allied militia have given crucial support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the country’s nearly nine-year civil war.
Russia, a key backer of Damascus that has close security ties with Israel, has largely looked the other way as Israel carries out a shadow war with Iran in Syria to prevent its archenemy from entrenching itself in the country.
