Syrian says air defenses confront Israeli attack over Homs area

Israel targeted outposts in Syria's Homs province in a raid early on Sunday, the Syrian defence ministry said, while Western intelligence sources said the strikes hit a series of air bases in the central region of the country where Iranian personnel are based. The Israeli military declined to comment on the report of the latest strike in Syria, the third since Thursday and only a day after another attack on Friday that killed an officer in Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the Guards said.

Israel targeted outposts in Syria's Homs province in a raid early on Sunday, the Syrian defence ministry said, while Western intelligence sources said the strikes hit a series of air bases in the central region of the country where Iranian personnel are based.

The Israeli military declined to comment on the report of the latest strike in Syria, the third since Thursday and only a day after another attack on Friday that killed an officer in Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the Guards said. The strikes pointed to intensifying Israeli efforts to counter Tehran's foothold in the country, analysts said.

Two Western intelligence sources said the rocket strikes targeted the T4 air base located west of the ancient city of Palmyra, and al Dabaa airport near al Qusayr city near the Lebanese border where Iranian backed Hezbollah are entrenched. Iranian military personnel alongside fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah are stationed at both airports and there is a strong presence of pro-Iranian militias in that area of Homs province, the sources said.

A Syrian military source said on state media that the strikes caused some material damage with five military personnel injured. Israel has for years carried out attacks against 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 the conflict that began in 2011 following a brutal crackdown of peaceful demonstrators. (Reporting By Muhammad Al Gebaly , Moaz Abd-Alaziz in Cairo and Suleiman al Khalidi in Amman; Additional reporting by Maayan Lubel in Jerusalem, Editing by Franklin Paul)

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