Israeli jets pound Syrian military positions, many injured
DAMASCUS, April 13, 2019
Israeli warplanes hit major military positions in Syria including a military academy and a military base run by Iran-backed fighters early Saturday wounding six soldiers and destroying several buildings, Syria’s state news agency Sana reported.
Sana quoted an unnamed military official as saying the airstrike near the town of Masyaf, in Hama province, hit a military academy widely known as the Accounting School.
It said Israeli warplanes fired missiles toward Syria from Lebanon’s airspace and that Syrian air defenses shot down some of the missiles.
Meanwhile the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Israeli airstrikes hit three targets, wounding 17 Syrian soldiers.
It said there were also deaths, but it was not immediately clear how many were killed and whether they were Iranians or Iran-sponsored fighters, reported AP.
It said the strikes targeted the accounting school as well as a missile development center in a village near Masyaf and a nearby military base run by Iran-backed fighters.
Since the civil war started, Israel has carried out scores of military strikes in Syria during against suspected arms transfers and deployments by Iranian forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies which are backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The Israeli military declined to comment. Israel does not usually comment on reports concerning its airstrikes in neighboring Syria, though it has recently acknowledged striking Iranian targets there.
The most serious wave of airstrikes on Syria this year occurred in January, when the Israeli military hit several Iranian targets, saying it was responding to an Iranian missile attack a day earlier, said the AP report.
The Iranian launch followed a rare Israeli daylight air raid near the Damascus International Airport, it added.
