Israeli Missiles Targeting Homs Intercepted By Syrian Air Defenses
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Most of the Israeli missiles launched toward an airbase in the central Syrian province of Homs were successfully shot down by Syrian air defenses.
At least two Syrian service members have been killed and three more people injured in an “Israeli air aggression” against a military facility in the central province of Homs, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported on Sunday.
Citing a military source, Syria’s official SANA news agency reported that the Israeli missile attack was carried out from the Lebanese airspace and targeted Shayrat military airbase in the southeastern part of Homs on Sunday evening.
“At 6:23 pm this evening, the Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression from the direction of Tripoli-Hermel in northern Lebanon, targeting Shayrat military airport in Homs countryside,” the report said, adding, “Our air defenses confronted the aggression’s missiles and shot down some of them.”
Syria’s air defenses were activated to repel the attack at around 6:20 pm local time on Sunday, an unnamed military official told SANA.
The missiles reportedly came from the direction of northern Lebanon, and while some of them were intercepted, several projectiles hit the Shayrat military airport near Homs, killing at least two soldiers and inflicting some “material losses.”
The strikes apparently targeted the airbase’s runway, a military source told Reuters.
Israel frequently violates Syria’s sovereignty by targeting military positions inside the Arab country, especially those of the resistance movement Hezbollah, which has played a key role in helping the Syrian army fight foreign-backed terrorists.
The Tel Aviv regime mostly keeps quiet about its attacks on Syrian territories, which many view as a knee-jerk reaction to the Syrian government’s increasing success in confronting terrorism.
Israel has been a key supporter of terrorist groups that have been fighting against the government of President Bashar al-Assad since the foreign-backed militancy erupted in Syria in early 2011.
Syria has repeatedly complained to the UN over Israeli assaults, urging the Security Council to take action against Tel Aviv’s crimes. The calls have, however, fallen on deaf ears.