Two Syrian soldiers were killed and six others wounded in Israeli shelling of military sites in the countryside of the western coastal province of Tartous near the birthplace of President Bashar al-Assad.
The official Syrian news agency SANA on Wednesday quoted a military source as saying, "The Israeli enemy carried out aggression with bursts of missiles from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea targeting some of our air defense sites in Tartus, which led to the martyrdom of two military personnel, the injury of 6 others and some material losses."
Over the past years, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria, targeting Syrian army positions and Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah targets, including weapons and ammunition depots in different areas, but has mostly avoided bombing the coastal provinces where the main Russian military forces are concentrated.
Israeli strikes have repeatedly put Aleppo and Damascus international airports out of service after they were targeted, the latest of which was the outage of Aleppo airport in late August, the fourth targeting since the beginning of the year.
Israel rarely confirms strikes in Syria, but has reiterated that it will continue to counter what it calls Iran's attempts to entrench its military presence in Syria.
Damascus regularly condemns the Israeli bombardment of its territory and considers it an aggression against its sovereignty. The United Nations and the UN Security Council often call for action to compel Israel to stop targeting its territory, which it describes as "a flagrant violation of international law, international humanitarian law and the provisions of the UN Charter."