| March 28, 2019
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Confirmed: Israeli air raids destroyed ‘secret’ Iranian weapons factory, 7 Iranians killed

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the IDF bombardment hit secret “ammunition stores belonging to Iranian forces and allied groups, and caused huge explosions.”
– Israeli FM confirmed raid.
– Seven Iranians (who reportedly weren’t there) killed during attack.

By i24NEWS

 

Israeli FM appears to confirm raid; monitor says seven killed in strike targeting Iranian ammunition stores

Syria said Wednesday that air defense batteries responded to “hostile Israel missiles” over the northern city of Aleppo, with opposition sources saying the strikes had targeted ammunition depots and a military airport used by Iranian forces.

State news agency SANA said that the Syrian military had “repelled an Israeli air aggression” that targeted a number of industrial sites in an industrial zone near the Al-Nayrab airport.

“The Israeli aggression targeted some positions in Sheikh Najjar industrial zone and a number of enemy missiles were brought down,” an army statement said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Israeli bombardment hit “ammunition stores belonging to Iranian forces and allied groups, and caused huge explosions.”

The Observatory added that at least seven people were killed. The casualties were neither Syrian nor Iranian, it said, but could not specify their nationalities.

The Syrian military, meanwhile, said that the Israeli strike caused only material damage.

The raids caused electricity blackouts across Aleppo — Syria’s second-largest city and a major industrial hub that military experts say is a stronghold for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps.

The area has been targeted several times in recent years by raids attributed to Israel.

Israel’s acting Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz appeared to confirm his country’s operation in an interview with Army Radio on Thursday morning, saying: “As far as Iran knows, it’s Israel” that struck the weapons depot, adding that it was a “challenging” operation.

“We are being credited by foreign media with an air force operation this past night against Iranian forces in Syria,” Katz said. “According to the sources it’s Israel, and according to what the Syrians said and responded it’s Israel. As far as Iran knows it’s Israel.”

“There were other operations like this one that we have taken responsibility for,” he said. “This operation was far more challenging militarily, and much more powerful” than those carried out by Israel in the Gaza Strip.

Israel has vowed repeatedly to act to prevent Iran — a major backer of Syria’s embattled president Bashar al-Assad in the country’s devastating eight-year civil war — from entrenching itself militarily in war-torn Syria.

In January Israel hit a number of Iranian installations in the country, hours after intercepting a rocket fired from Syrian territory.

The Observatory said 21 people, mostly Iranians, were killed in those attacks.

In May 2018, Israeli strikes killed 27 pro-regime fighters including 11 Iranians in strikes on dozens of Iranian targets inside Syria.

 

View original i24NEWS publication at:
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/middle-east/1553724072-syrian-state-media-says-air-defenses-intercept-israeli-airstrike-in-aleppo

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