In a rare move, Russia on Monday accused Israel of carrying out a predawn missile strike on an air base in central Syria that reportedly killed 14 people, among them Iranian nationals.
Dictator Bashar Assad’s regime also said Israel was behind the airstrike.
Israeli military officials refused to comment on the allegations.
“This is a very dangerous development. I hope at least that the US military and those of the countries participating in the coalition led by the United States understand that,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a press conference Monday.
The United States and France officially denied carrying out the strike, which came shortly after both countries threatened to retaliate for a chemical weapons attack allegedly conducted by Assad in the Syrian town of Douma late Saturday.
The target of the reported airstrike was the Tiyas air base — also known as the T-4 air base — outside Palmyra in central Syria. Israel has previously carried out at least one explicitly acknowledged attack on the base, which it said was home to an Iranian drone program.
According to Russia, the strike was carried out shortly before 4 a.m. Monday by two Israeli F-15 fighter jets.
The Russian defense ministry said the Israeli aircraft launched eight missiles at the base from Lebanese airspace, five of which it said were intercepted.
Syrian television showed footage of the alleged Israeli missiles flying through Syrian airspace toward the base.
In a statement carried by the official Syrian news agency SANA, however, a military official source said eight of the missiles fired by the Israeli jets were downed by air-defense batteries, though some of them got through. “There are martyrs and wounded,” the source said.
While Syria has publicly accused Israel of conducting airstrikes against targets in its territory, Russia has mostly refrained from commenting on these attacks.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, at least 14 people were killed and more were wounded. Iranian nationals were listed among the casualties.
Moscow noted that no Russians were injured in the strike.
“According to a military source in Damascus, the Syrian Air Defense system was deployed from the Mezzeh Air Base after the jets entered Syria from Lebanon’s Beqa’a Valley,” Lebanese news site Al-Masdar Newsreported.
That is the route that Israeli jets generally take before bombing military targets in Syria, according to foreign reports.
Israel conducted an airstrike against the Tiyas base on February 10, after an Iranian operator working out of it flew an Iranian-made drone into Israeli territory, according to the army.
“Iran and the [Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ special unit] Quds Force for some time have been operating the T-4 Air Base in Syria next to Palmyra, with support from the Syrian military and with permission from the Syrian regime,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement at the time.
Construction Minister Yoav Galant, a former IDF major general and a member of Israel’s security cabinet, would not comment directly on the attack, but reiterated the “red lines” that Jerusalem considers grounds for launching strikes.
“In Syria many forces, from various bodies and coalitions, are operating. Each one says what it says and denies what it denies,” he told Israel Radio. “We have clear interests in Syria and we set red lines. We will not allow weapons to pass from Syria to Lebanon, and we will not allow the establishment of an Iranian base.”
Syria Latest: Syrian Monitors Say 14 Killed in Air Base Strike
9:45 a.m.
The Russian military says the Israeli Air Force was behind the airstrike in Syria and had launched eight missiles on a Syrian air base.
A Syrian military official also says Israel was behind the attack.
Russia's Defense Ministry says two Israeli fighter jets launched the attack on the T4 air base in central Syria from Lebanon's air space in the early hours on Monday.
The ministry says Syria shot down five out of the eight missiles that targeted the base. It says the other three landed in the western part of the T4 base.
Syrian state TV meanwhile quoted the unnamed military official as saying Israeli F-15 warplanes had fired several missiles while flying over neighboring Lebanon. The TV gave no further details.
9 a.m.
Syrian state media are saying that dozens of civilians who had been held for years by a rebel group near the capital of Damascus have been set free.
The state SANA news agency says the people were freed around midnight on Sunday. It says they had been held by the Army of Islam group since 2013.
Their release is part of a newly reached deal in which thousands of Army of Islam fighters and their relative will be allowed to leave the town of Douma and head to rebel-held part in northern Syria.
SANA released pictures of men, women and children waving from buses shortly after they crossed into government-controlled areas on the edge of Douma.
The Army of Islam is holding thousands of people in the Tawba prison that they run inside Douma.
7:55 a.m.
A Syrian war-monitoring group says 14 people, including Iranians, were killed in a missile attack early in the morning on an air base in central Syria.
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says most of the 14 killed were either Iranians or members of Iran-backed groups.
Syria's state-run news agency earlier reported that missiles struck the T4 air base early on Monday. It said the attack left people dead and wounded. Although the agency said it was likely "an American aggression," U.S. officials said the United States had not launched any airstrikes on Syria.
Al-Manar TV station of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group, which is fighting in Syria alongside the government forces, described the attack as an "Israeli aggression."
The Observatory says it wasn't immediately clear who was behind the attack.
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