Tel Aviv: An Israeli airstrike in central Syria killed a Syrian soldier and three pro-Iran fighters, according to a UK-based war observer.
Syria’s state-run SANA news agency previously quoted a military source as saying Wednesday’s attack near the town of Palmyra in Homs province killed one soldier and injured three others.
“At around 11:34 pm (20:34 GMT), the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial assault… on the Palmyra area targeting a communications tower and several positions nearby,” the source told SANA.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based observer, said the attack targeted several Iranian positions, including the communications tower, near T4 air base east of Palmyra.
The Observatory said Israeli fighter jets flew over the Iraqi-Syrian-Jordanian border triangle during the attack.
He reported that the attack killed a Syrian soldier and three pro-Iran fighters, but their nationality was not immediately clear.
According to the Observatory, several other Israeli missiles were intercepted by Syrian air defenses.
Seven other people, including three Syrian soldiers, were injured.
The incident came days after Syrian state media reported that Syrian air defenses intercepted an Israeli missile attack over the Homs countryside, injuring six Syrian soldiers and causing property damage.
The Observatory reported that two pro-Iranian foreign fighters were killed in this attack.
SANA said six soldiers were also injured in the incident.
Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel has carried out regular airstrikes inside Syria, mainly against Syrian government troops, as well as Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah forces allied with the Damascus regime.
The IDF rarely recognizes individual strikes, but has repeatedly stated that it will not allow Syria to become a stronghold of its nemesis, Iran.
