Syrian Bases Attacked in Missile Strike, 40 dead, including Iranians

In a strike on Syrian army bases being used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, hitting weapons warehouses among multiple targets, was so massive the European Mediterranean Seismological Center registered it as 2.6 magnitude on the Richter scale.
•  Sky News Arabia reported 40 killed, 60 wounded.
•  Hezbollah-affiliated paper accuses Israel for attack.
• UPDATED: Watch video of explosion.

By Reuters and Liad Osmo

 

Rockets struck several military bases in the Hama and Aleppo countryside late Sunday night in what the Syrian army said was new “aggression” by its enemies, as the Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper Al Akhbar blamed Israel for the attack.

The New York Times’ mapping of Iranian presence in Syria.

According to Syrian state television, the missile attacks took place at 10:30 pm. Al Akhbar reported the targets of the strike were Syrian army bases being used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Sky News Arabia reported that more than 40 people were killed and 60 wounded in the attacks, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 26 pro-government fighters dead, mostly Iranians.

“Syria is being exposed to a new aggression with some military bases in rural Hama and Aleppo hit with enemy rockets,” an army source was quoted as saying without elaborating.

The explosions were registered as a 2.6 magnitude earthquake by the European Mediterranean Seismological Center.

An opposition source said one of the locations hit was an army base known as Brigade 47 near Hama city, widely known as a recruitment center for Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias who fight alongside President Bashar Assad’s forces.

Al Mayadeen reported missiles also hit targets in the Al-Malikiyah area, north of the Aleppo air port.

An intelligence source who closely follows Syria said it appeared that multiple missile strikes hit several command centers for Iranian-backed militias and there were dozens of injuries and deaths.

The strikes hit weapons warehouses, and further explosions were heard, the source who requested anonymity said.

Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the allegations.

Israel in the course of the conflict has hit Iranian-backed militia outposts in Syria, targeting mainly Lebanese Shi’ite militia Hezbollah’s arms convoys in and out of Syria and its supply lines.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this month his country will continue “to move against Iran in Syria.”

Aftermath of Israel’s previous strike in Syria – Ynet [unattributed]

Earlier this month, the New York Times, quoting an unnamed Israeli military source, reported that Israel struck a Syrian air base that Tehran used. Iran’s Tansim news agency said seven Iranian personnel were killed in the attack.The strike on an air base brought warnings from Tehran it would retaliate.

Israel has said Iran was expanding its influence in a belt of territory that stretches from the Iraqi border to the Lebanese border, where Israel says Iran supplies Hezbollah with arms.

Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed militias have a large military presence in Syria and are well entrenched in central and eastern areas near the Iraqi border.

 

View original Ynet publication at:
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5246144,00.html