Multiple explosions reported in northern Syria as Israeli fighter jets bomb military and scientific research labs in Aleppo, following nearly 500 airstrikes in Syria in less than a month.
By World Israel News Staff
Israeli warplanes bombed multiple targets in northern Syria late Thursday night, local media outlets and a human rights watch group reported Friday morning.
Residents of the Aleppo district told AFP that explosions rocked the al-Safirah area late Thursday night.
“They hit defense factories, five strikes,” one resident told AFP. “The strikes were very strong. It made the ground shake, doors and windows opened — the strongest strikes I ever heard… It turned the night into day.”
Syria’s Sham FM radio station confirmed the attacks, saying that the strikes had hit two research facilities in a rural area outside of al-Safirah.
The Israeli military did not respond to the reports.
The London-based, anti-Assad Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) identified one of the two facilities targeted in the strikes as a military research lab, while it described the second as a “scientific research” center.
SOHR reported that at least seven “huge explosions” were heard during the strikes.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, SOHR said.
Thursday’s strikes mark the 498th Israeli airstrikes in Syria since the collapse of former President Bashar Assad’s regime on December 8th, SOHR claimed.
The strikes came just hours after the IDF confirmed Thursday that Israeli special forces units had conducted a group operation targeting an underground missile factory in September.
According to the Israeli military, the facility was used to manufacture guided missiles, which were assembled on behalf of Iran and transferred to the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.
The raid, which was carried out on a facility outside Masyaf near the Mediterranean coast, involved dozens of Israeli aircraft and over 100 special forces soldiers, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said.