Israel strikes targets in Homs, Syrian reports say

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Israel struck targets in Syria’s Homs, triggering air defenses, Syrian reports said Friday.

“An Israeli aggression is targeting the central region, and air defenses are responding,” Syrian state TV reported.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes inside Syria in the course of the country’s civil war, targeting what it says are suspected arms shipments believed to be bound for Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, which is fighting alongside Syrian government forces. It rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.

In September, Israel fired missiles over Damascus, also activating air defenses, according to Syrian state media.

Also that month, an unidentified aircraft hit a base run by Iranian-backed militias in Syria’s eastern province of Deir al Zor near the Iraqi border where Tehran has in the last year expanded its military presence, according to residents and military sources.

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They said the strikes were south of the town of Mayadeen along the Euphrates River which has become a major base for several Shi’ite militias, mostly from Iraq, since Islamic State militants were driven out nearly four years ago.

In August, Russia’s military said Syria had shot down 22 missiles launched by Israeli warplanes at targets in Syria. A few days prior to that, Syrian media reported that Israel had struck targets near the border province of Quneitra.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the missiles struck areas where Iran-backed fighters are based.