At least 14 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes on a number of military sites in central Syria, the Syrian state news agency reports.

Sana cited a hospital director as saying that another 43 people were wounded in the attacks in the vicinity of Masyaf, in Hama province, on Sunday night.

A UK-based monitoring group earlier reported that at least four soldiers and three civilians were killed in strikes that destroyed military and scientific facilities where Iran-backed armed groups were present.

The Israeli military said it did not comment on foreign media reports.

However, it has previously acknowledged carrying out hundreds of strikes in recent years on targets in Syria that it says are linked to Iran and allied armed groups.

The Israeli strikes have reportedly been stepped up since the start of the war in Gaza in October last year, in response to cross-border attacks on northern Israel by Hezbollah and other groups in Lebanon and Syria.

Sana cited a Syrian military source as saying that Israeli aircraft flying over north-western Lebanon launched missiles at “a number of military sites in the central region” at around 23:20 local time (20:20 GMT) on Sunday.

"Our air defence shot down some missiles,” the military source added.

The news agency reported that the strikes also caused damage to a local highway and that a fire broke out in the Hair Abbas area.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group which monitors the conflict in the country through a network of sources on the ground, reported that “13 violent explosions rang out in the zone housing scientific research centres in Masyaf where pro-Iranian groups and weapons development experts are present”.

It said three civilians who had been in a car and four unidentified soldiers were killed.

Source: BBC

BDST: 1227 HRS, SEPT 09, 2024
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