Israeli Airstrike Kills 4 in Central Syria

Damaged buildings are shown after what Syrian authorities said was an Israeli airstrike in the western suburbs of Damascus, Syria in this handout released by state news agency SANA on April 27, 2020. SANA/Handout via REUTERS
Damaged buildings are shown after what Syrian authorities said was an Israeli airstrike in the western suburbs of Damascus, Syria in this handout released by state news agency SANA on April 27, 2020. SANA/Handout via REUTERS
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Israeli Airstrike Kills 4 in Central Syria

Damaged buildings are shown after what Syrian authorities said was an Israeli airstrike in the western suburbs of Damascus, Syria in this handout released by state news agency SANA on April 27, 2020. SANA/Handout via REUTERS
Damaged buildings are shown after what Syrian authorities said was an Israeli airstrike in the western suburbs of Damascus, Syria in this handout released by state news agency SANA on April 27, 2020. SANA/Handout via REUTERS

An Israeli airstrike in central Syria killed one Syrian soldier and three pro-Iranian fighters on Wednesday, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Syrian state news agency SANA had earlier quoted a military source as saying that the attack close to the historic Syrian town of Palmyra in Homs province had killed a soldier and wounded three others.

"At around 23:34 (2034 GMT) the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial aggression... on the area of Palmyra targeting a communication tower and several positions in its vicinity," the source told SANA.

The Observatory said the attack targeted several Iranian positions, among them the communication tower, near the T4 airbase east of Palmyra.

It reported that the attack killed one Syrian soldier and three pro-Iranian fighters, but their nationality was not immediately clear.

Seven others, among them three Syrian soldiers, were wounded.

Last week, an Israeli missile strike on the same airbase killed two pro-Iranian foreign fighters, the Observatory reported.

SANA said six soldiers were wounded in that attack.

Israel has staged hundreds of strikes against Iran-linked military targets in Syria over the years but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.



Two Killed in Israeli Strike North of Lebanon’s Capital

An ambulance takes wounded to a hospital in Beirut. (AFP)
An ambulance takes wounded to a hospital in Beirut. (AFP)
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Two Killed in Israeli Strike North of Lebanon’s Capital

An ambulance takes wounded to a hospital in Beirut. (AFP)
An ambulance takes wounded to a hospital in Beirut. (AFP)

At least two people were killed in an Israeli strike near the Christian-majority town of Jounieh, north of Beirut, Lebanon's health ministry said on Saturday, in the first attack on the area by Israeli forces.

The Israeli military was looking into the report of the strike in Jounieh, a spokesperson said. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group that is fighting Israeli troops on Lebanon's southern border and whose top leadership has suffered blows from targeted Israeli strikes.

The health ministry said the Israeli strike targeted a car.

Two witnesses told Reuters they heard a small blast and saw a Honda sports utility vehicle travelling on the main highway south in the direction of Beirut begin to lose control.

The car stopped about 100 meters down the highway and a man and a woman ran out of the vehicle and into a grassy area on the side of the highway before another blast, the witnesses said.

One witness saw the charred remains of a person in the grassy area.