DAMASCUS: Three people have been wounded, with fires and explosions reported after an Israeli air attack on a site near the Syrian city of Homs, state media reported, with the monitoring group saying a munitions depot was hit.
Syria’s state news agency SANA, citing military officials, said three civilians were injured in the attack in the early hours of Saturday and that a civilian fuel station caught fire. Several fuel tankers and trucks were also burned.
SANA reported, “At around 00:50, the Israeli enemy carried out the air attack with several missiles from the direction of north Lebanon, targeting many positions in the vicinity of the city of Homs”.
SANA said that Syrian air defences shot down some Israeli missiles in the sky over Homs. The pro-government Sham FM radio said that fires broke out south of Homs City due to the strikes, and “successive explosions” sounded from the area.
The UK-based opposition war monitor, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Israeli missiles destroyed the ammunition depot belonging to the Lebanese group Hezbollah at the military airport in the Homs countryside. The observatory said that it was the second time Israel had targeted the site in a month.
There was no statement from Israeli authorities on the attack. During more than ten years of civil war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on Syrian territory but does not comment on such attacks. Israel claims it is hitting enemy Iran-backed forces and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters inside Syrian territory.
State media reported that Israeli air attacks hit several sites in Homs on April 2, wounding five soldiers. On April 9, Israel’s military said its forces attacked targets in Syria after 6 rockets were launched from southern Syria towards the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
