Israel Strikes Homs Sites Killing and Wounding Many
A number of individuals have been killed and injured in an early morning Israeli airstrike that targeted several locations in the city of Homs and its countryside in central Syria, as reported by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA). Reuters cited local sources stating that the Israeli attacks targeted several sites, including those affiliated with the Syrian regime’s army and an airbase in the region.
The official Syrian news agency, SANA, quoted a statement from the Ministry of Defense, indicating that “the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial aggression from the north of Tripoli (in northern Lebanon), targeting several points in the city of Homs and its countryside.”
The statement mentioned that the Syrian air defense systems intercepted a number of missiles, without providing details on the targets hit, confirming the killing and injury of a number of civilians. Human rights sources reported the deaths of 5 individuals, including 3 civilians – a man, a woman, and a child.
Syrian state television aired footage of ambulances rushing to the attack site, showing debris and the rubble of a targeted building. A source in the Syrian military intelligence informed Reuters that the Israeli shelling also targeted the Shayrat Airbase and several locations of the Syrian army on the outskirts of Homs.
Eyewitnesses reported that fragments from the exploding missiles fell in the farmlands of Al-Waer neighborhood in northwestern Homs, Al-Hamra Street in the city center, and the eastern Tadmor roundabout, as well as in the vicinity of the Homs refinery.
The article includes images posted on Twitter by the Shehab Agency, showing an increase in the number of martyrs resulting from the Israeli aggression in Homs to 5, with more than 7 injured.
Israel has escalated its attacks on targets associated with factions allied with Iran in Syria, since the Battle for the Quds and the ongoing war being waged by the occupation on the Gaza Strip. Their assaults have also targeted the air defenses of the Syrian regime’s army.
For years, Israel has carried out attacks on what it describes as Iranian-affiliated targets in Syria, where Tehran’s influence has increased since providing support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the war that erupted in 2011 following a major popular revolution demanding the overthrow of the regime. This was met with force and violence, turning into bloody battles that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, significant destruction, and the displacement of over half the country’s population.
Currently, fighters of factions allied with Iran, including the Lebanese Hezbollah party, control extensive areas in eastern, southern, and northwest Syria, as well as in several areas around the capital, Damascus.
