Syrian state media yesterday said that overnight Israeli strikes killed 16 people in central Hama Province, while a war monitor reported a higher death toll in the “intense” raids on military sites.
The Israeli military, which has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since its civil war started in 2011, declined to comment on the latest reported attack.
Syrian news agency SANA, citing a medical source, said the number of dead “in the Israeli aggression on a number of sites on the outskirts of Masyaf” was “16 martyrs and 36 wounded, including six critically,” updating an earlier toll of 14.
Photo: AFP
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported “intense Israeli strikes” overnight, providing an updated of toll of 25 dead, including “five civilians, four soldiers and intelligence personnel, and 13 Syrians working with pro-Iran groups.”
Three more bodies were unidentified, the observatory added.
Israeli strikes on Syria since 2011 have mainly targeted army positions and Iran-backed fighters, including from Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.
Israeli authorities rarely comment on individual strikes in Syria, but have repeatedly said they would not allow Iran to expand its presence in the nation.
The Britain-based observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, earlier said that the strikes targeted sites “where pro-Iran groups and weapons development experts are stationed.”
The observatory said “Israeli strikes ... targeted the scientific research area in Masyaf” in Hama Province and other sites, destroying buildings and military centers.
SANA, citing a military source, reported that at about 11:20pm on Sunday, “the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack” from the direction of northwest Lebanon “targeting a number of military sites in the central region.”
Air defenses “shot down some” of the missiles, SANA reported.
It was “one of the most violent Israeli attacks” in Syria in years, observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
He said Iranian experts “developing arms including precision missiles and drones” worked in the scientific research center that was hit.
Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Nasser Kanani told a news conference: “We strongly condemn this criminal attack by the Zionist regime on Syrian soil.”
The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned the raids, accusing Israel of trying to “provoke a further escalation in the region.”
Israeli raids on Syria surged after Hamas’ attack on Israel last year that sparked war in Gaza, then eased somewhat after an April 1 strike blamed on Israel hit the Iranian consular building in Damascus.
Syria has sought to stay out of the Israel-Hamas conflict, which has raised fears of a broader regional war.
Late last month, several pro-Iranian fighters were killed in Syria’s central Homs region in strikes attributed to Israel, the observatory said.
Days later, the Israeli military said it killed an unspecified number of fighters belonging to Hamas ally Islamic Jihad in a strike in Syria near the Lebanese border.
The Syrian government’s brutal suppression of a 2011 uprising triggered the conflict that has killed more than 500,000 people.
AIR DEFENSE: The Norwegian missile system has proved highly effective in Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US has recommended it for Taiwan, an expert said The Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Taiwan ordered from the US would be installed in strategically important positions in Taipei and New Taipei City to guard the region, the Ministry of National Defense said in statement yesterday. The air defense system would be deployed in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), the ministry said, adding that the systems could be delivered as soon as the end of this year. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has previously said that three NASAMS would be sold to Taiwan. The weapons are part of the 17th US arms sale to
SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS: The suspects formed spy networks and paramilitary groups to kill government officials during a possible Chinese invasion, prosecutors said Prosecutors have indicted seven retired military officers, members of the Rehabilitation Alliance Party, for allegedly obtaining funds from China, and forming paramilitary groups and assassination squads in Taiwan to collaborate with Chinese troops in a possible war. The suspects contravened the National Security Act (國家安全法) by taking photos and drawing maps of key radar stations, missile installations and the American Institute in Taiwan’s headquarters in Taipei, prosecutors said. They allegedly prepared to collaborate with China during a possible invasion of Taiwan, prosecutors said. Retired military officer Chu Hung-i (屈宏義), 62, a Republic of China Army Academy graduate, went to China
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
BREAKTHROUGH: The US is making chips on par in yield and quality with Taiwan, despite people saying that it could not happen, the official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden. In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent
RSS