CAIRO: Israeli airstrikes killed 16 people in western Syria and wounded dozens more overnight, Syrian state media reported on Monday (Sep 9), the deadliest Israeli attack reported by Syrian authorities since the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus was hit in April.
There was no immediate comment from Israel, which typically remains silent on reports of strikes in Syria.
The Syrian state news agency SANA, citing a military source, said Israel had launched the strikes at around 11.20pm on Sunday and targeted “a number of military sites in the central region”, without elaborating on what was struck.
Syrian air defences had shot down some of the missiles, the source said. SANA cited a local health official as saying 36 people had been wounded, six of whom were in serious condition.
Two regional intelligence sources said a major military research centre for chemical arms production located near Masyaf, in Hama province near the Mediterranean coast, had been hit several times. They said it was believed to house a team of Iranian military experts involved in weapons production.
However, a senior regional military source close to Damascus and Tehran denied the accounts that it was a chemical weapons facility, saying that the target was a well-known Syrian research facility.
Source: CNA
