DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) – Israeli warplanes fired several missiles in the direction of Central Syria early Friday, killing a family of four – including two children – and wounding four others, state media reported.
The state news agency SANA quoted an unnamed military official as saying the attack took place shortly before dawn when Israeli warplanes were flying over neighboring Lebanon.
The Israeli prime minister’s office declined to comment on the reports on Friday. Israel has launched hundreds of strikes over the years against Iran-linked military targets. But it rarely acknowledges or discusses such activities.
The Syrian military official said the attack was aimed at several targets in and near the central province of Hama. It added that Syrian anti-aircraft units fired most missiles.
According to the official, a family of four, consisting of a couple and their two children, died. The strike also injured four others, including two children, and destroyed three houses on the western edge of the provincial capital Hama, SANA quoted the official as saying.
State TV said the slain family was displaced by Syria’s nearly ten-year-long conflict.
The British Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor of the opposition following the war in Syria, said the strikes targeted five posts for fighters backed by Iran, based within the Syrian army positions.
The posts are said to have been destroyed, adding that parts of one of the anti-aircraft missiles fell on a residential area causing death and injuries among civilians.
It was Israel’s first strike on Syria since President Joe Biden took office.
In recent weeks, tensions have been high in the Middle East over the commemoration of the US assassination of Iranian Revolutionary Guards Commander Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.
On January 13, Israeli warplanes carried out intense airstrikes in eastern Syria, apparently targeting positions and weapons depots of Iran-backed forces. At least 57 fighters have been killed and dozens wounded, according to a war monitoring group in Syria.
The Observatory said it had recorded 39 Israeli attacks in Syria in 2020 that hit 135 targets, including military posts, warehouses or vehicles.
Israel views the Iranian fortification at its northern border as a red line, and they have repeatedly hit Iran-linked facilities and arms convoys destined for Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group.
The strikes also come amid increasing Israeli warplane missions at the lowest level in Lebanese air that have caused casualties.
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Mroue reports from Beirut.