The effects of the Israeli bombing on the city of Homs (communication sites)
A number of people were killed and others were injured in an Israeli air strike that targeted, early Wednesday morning, several locations in the city of Homs and its countryside in central Syria, according to what the official Syrian News Agency (SANA) reported. Reuters quoted local sources that the Israeli attacks targeted several sites, including sites belonging to the Syrian regime army and an air base in the region.
The official Syrian SANA agency reported, citing a statement by the Syrian Ministry of Defence, that “the Israeli enemy launched an air attack from the direction north of Tripoli (in northern Lebanon), targeting a number of points in the city of Homs and its countryside.”
The statement indicated that the Syrian air defenses shot down a number of missiles without providing details about the targets that were struck, and confirmed the killing and wounding of a number of civilians. Meanwhile, human rights sources indicated that between 5 and 4 people were killed, including two civilians.
Syrian state television showed footage of ambulances rushing to the site of the attack, where debris and rubble of a targeted building appeared.
A Syrian military intelligence source familiar with the matter told Reuters that the Israeli bombing also targeted the Shayrat air base and several Syrian army positions on the outskirts of Homs.
Eyewitnesses reported to the German News Agency that fragments of explosive rockets fell on the farms of the Al-Waer neighborhood, northwest of the city of Homs, Al-Hamra Street in the city center, east of the Palmyra roundabout, and in the vicinity of the Homs refinery.
#watched| Syrian sources: The number of martyrs as a result of the Israeli aggression on Homs increased to 5 martyrs and more than 7 wounded pic.twitter.com/pO3VD6VCgz
- Shehab News Agency (@ShehabAgency) February 6, 2024
Israel has escalated its attacks on targets belonging to factions allied with Iran in Syria since the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood and the war launched by the occupation on the Gaza Strip, and also targeted the air defenses of the Syrian regime’s army.
For years, Israel has been launching attacks on what it describes as targets linked to Iran in Syria, where Tehran's influence has increased since it began supporting Syrian regime President Bashar al-Assad in the war that broke out in 2011 following a major popular revolution that demanded the overthrow of the regime, which was confronted with force and violence, turning it into battles. A bloody attack that left hundreds of thousands dead, great destruction, and the displacement of more than half of the country's population.
Fighters from factions linked to Iran, including the Lebanese Hezbollah, now control large areas in eastern, southern and northwestern Syria and in several areas around the capital, Damascus.
Source: Al Jazeera + agencies