AMMAN/CAIRO — Israeli airstrikes killed 16 people and wounded dozens overnight in western Syria, Syrian state media reported Monday, the deadliest Israeli attack reported by Syrian authorities since the attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus in April.
Israel, which typically remains silent on reports of attacks in Syria, made no immediate comment.
Syrian state news agency SANA cited military sources as saying Israel launched the attack at around 11:20 pm (Sunday 2020 GMT) and targeted “several military installations in the central region,” but did not give details about the targets.
The Syrian Air Defense Forces shot down some of the missiles, the source said.
SANA quoted a local health official as saying 36 people were injured, six of them seriously.
Two regional intelligence sources said several attacks had come on a main military research centre for making chemical weapons near Masyaf in Hama province on the Mediterranean coast.
It is believed to be home to a team of Iranian military experts involved in weapons manufacturing.
But senior military officials in the region near Damascus and Tehran denied that it was a chemical weapons facility, saying the target was a known Syrian research facility.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned the attack as a blatant act of aggression.
The blast killed 16 people, injured 36 and caused “material damage in some residential areas,” according to a statement carried by SANA.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said Tehran strongly condemned the “criminal attack” in Syria.
In response to a question about the attacks at a press conference, he said, “I have not confirmed any attacks on Iranian facilities or facilities under Iranian protection as reported by media outlets linked to the Zionist regime (Israel).”
Syrian state media also reported that firefighters were battling two fires caused by the airstrikes.
Israel has for years attacked what it describes as Iranian or Iranian-backed targets in Syria, where Iranian forces and Tehran-backed militias are widely deployed in support of President Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian civil war.
Tehran has stepped up its operations since Hamas launched an attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, including an April 1 attack on the Iranian embassy that killed senior Iranian commanders, including one of the country's top generals.
