DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) – Israeli planes fired several missiles into central Syria on Friday morning, killing a family of four – including two children – and injuring four others, state media reported.
State news agency SANA quoted an unidentified military officer as saying the attack occurred just before dawn, when Israeli warplanes flew over neighboring Lebanon.
The Israeli prime minister’s office on Friday declined to comment on the reports. Israel has launched hundreds of attacks against Iran-linked military targets in Syria over the years. But it rarely recognizes or discusses such operations.
The Syrian military official said the attack targeted several targets in and around central Hama province. He added that Syrian air defense units shot down most of the missiles.
The official said the strike killed a family of four, made up of a couple and their two children. The strike also injured four other people, including two children, and destroyed three houses on the western edge of the provincial capital of Hama, the SANA official said.
State TV said the dead family had been displaced by the nearly 10-year conflict in Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in Britain, an opposition war monitor accompanying the Syrian war, said the attacks targeted five Iranian-backed combatant posts based on positions in the Syrian army.
According to the agency, the posts were destroyed, adding that parts of one of the air defense missiles fell in a residential area, causing deaths and injuries among civilians.
It was Israel’s first attack on Syria since President Joe Biden took office.
Tension was high in the Middle East in recent weeks over the anniversary of the assassination of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard commander Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.
On January 13, Israeli warplanes carried out intense air strikes in eastern Syria, apparently targeting positions and arms depots of Iran-backed forces. At least 57 fighters were killed and dozens injured, according to a monitoring group from Syrian opposition war.
The Observatory said it registered 39 Israeli attacks inside Syria in 2020, which hit 135 targets, including military posts, warehouses or vehicles.
Israel views Iran’s entrenchment on its northern border as a red line, and has repeatedly attacked Iran-linked facilities and arms convoys targeted at Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group.
The attacks also came amid intensified missions of Israeli low-altitude warplanes in Lebanese skies, which caused nervousness among residents.
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Mroue reported from Beirut.