South Front
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A series of Israeli airstrikes hit the central Syrian governorate of Homs early on April 2, in the third such attack on the war-torn country in the last few days.
Citing a military source, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said that Israel carried out “an aerial aggression from the direction of northwest Beirut targeting some outposts in Homs city and its countryside at 00:35 am.”
Syrian air defenses intercepted the missiles and shot down some of them, the source said, adding that the attack caused some material damage and wounded five service members.
Two Western intelligence sources told the Reuters news agency that the airstrikes targeted the T4 air base in the eastern Homs countryside, and al-Dabaa air base in the southern countryside of the governorate. According to the unnamed sources, Iranian military personnel and fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah are stationed at both bases.
A regional intelligence source also said that an underground research center where Iranian scientists are suspected of developing missile and drone capabilities was also among the targets. Reuters said it was unable to verify the authenticity of the claims.
Two waves of Israeli airstrikes hit positions in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and its outskirts on March 30 and 31, causing human and material losses.
Without referring to the recent attacks on Syria, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised speech on April 2 that Israel is “exacting a heavy price from terrorist-supporting regimes” outside of its borders.
Israel carried out hundreds of strikes on Syria over the past decade as a part of a covert military campaign known as “the war between the wars”. Tel Aviv rarely discusses the campaign. However, it says it is making efforts to prevent Iranian-backed forces, namely Hezbollah, from smuggling advanced weapons and entrenching themselves in the country.
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