Several Syrian regime soldiers were injured in an Israeli airstrike near Shayrat airport east of Homs, in central Syria.
Syria’s official news agency (SANA) reported on the evening of Thursday, August 8, citing an unnamed military source, that four soldiers were injured due to an “Israeli aggression” that targeted locations in the central region.
The agency added that the “Israeli enemy” launched an aerial assault from the direction of northern Lebanon, targeting several military points in the central region.
In addition to the injuries, the attack also caused material losses, according to SANA’s military source, without providing further details about the locations and military points targeted.
For its part, the Israeli army, as usual, did not announce the airstrike. Meanwhile, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that seven soldiers, including three affiliated with Iran-backed militias, were injured in an Israeli airstrike on a missile depot at a military regiment approximately five kilometers from Shayrat airport.
According to the Observatory, the explosions continued for an hour, with fires breaking out at the targeted sites.
The Israeli research blog “Intelli Times” mentioned that any attack on the weapons smuggling routes from Homs airport towards Damascus or al-Qusayr would be linked to Israel.
This airstrike came about a week after another one in the countryside of Homs near the Lebanese border, which was not reported by the official Syrian media, but was mentioned by pro-regime media.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) at that time quoted what it called a “source close to Hezbollah” saying that Israel launched three airstrikes targeting a convoy of tanker trucks, injuring a Syrian driver.
The pro-regime newspaper Al-Watan reported on August 2, quoting the commander of the Homs fire regiment, Major Iyad Mohammad, that an “aerial aggression targeted several border villages in southern Homs countryside in the al-Qusayr area, causing fires in agricultural lands.”
Local radio station Al-Madina FM published information about the three villages being targeted by the airstrike, using the same wording as Al-Watan newspaper, while SANA and the state television channels did not report the news.
The Lebanese channel Al-Mayadeen reported at that time that two Israeli airstrikes targeted the outskirts of Hosh al-Sayed Ali and the countryside of al-Qusayr near the Lebanese-Syrian border.