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Report: At least 6 killed, including Iranians, in Israeli strikes in Syria

At least six persons were killed in the Israeli air strikes inside Syria, likely including Iranian soldiers.

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

At least six persons, likely including Iranian soldiers, were killed in the Israeli air strikes inside Syria on Saturday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which has operatives inside Syria, reported that at least six individual “Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities,” including members of the Syrian regime forces, were killed in the air strikes that were carried out by Israeli warplanes on several Syrian areas on Saturday.

Others were injured in the air strikes, and the death toll is expected to rise as some people are in critical situation, SOHR reported.

The “non-Syrians” probably mean Iranians, possibly the operators of the drone that breached Israeli airspace and was downed by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) and whose operating unit was attacked.

The IDF stated that IAF aircraft targeted the Syrian Aerial Defense System and Iranian targets in Syria. A total of 12 targets were hit, including three aerial defense batteries and four Iranian military targets. Anti-aircraft missiles were fired towards Israel, triggering alarms in northern Israel.

SOHR reported that the air strikes targeted the area between the outskirts of the T4 Airbase and the al-Bayyarat area in the eastern countryside of Homs, the al-Dimas area northwest of Rif Dimashq, and the administrative borders between Daraa and Rif Dimashq.

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The T4 Airport is home to Iranian forces, the Lebanese Hezbollah terror organization and Syrian regime forces, SOHR said.

“The IDF will act determinately against such severe violations of Israeli sovereignty by Iran and Syria and will continue to act as necessary. The IDF is ready for various scenarios and will continue to act according to situation assessments,” the IDF stated after the strikes in Syria,

“We are willing, prepared, and capable to exact a heavy price on anyone that attacks us. However, we are not looking to escalate the situation,” said IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus.

In an extensive briefing to military reporters following the incident, IAF Chief of Staff Brig. Gen. Tomer Bar said the Israeli attack was the largest since the First Lebanon War in 1982.

“We attacked advanced long-range surface-to-air missiles, components of the [Syrian] air-defense system and various Iranian targets,” Bar said. “We will not allow Iran to become entrenched in Syria and we will do everything necessary to prevent that.”