Israel bombed a munitions warehouse in central Syria on Friday morning in a rare daylight strike which sparked a massive explosion, according to reports from Syria.
The attack appeared to be the fifth strike attributed to Israel against Iran-linked forces in Syria in the past two weeks, coming less than 12 hours after Israeli attack helicopters reportedly bombed Iran-backed forces in the Syrian Golan Heights late Thursday night.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the arms cache that was bombed on Friday morning by Israel was located outside Homs and contained missiles and ammunition belonging to the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group.
Damascus officially denied that Israel was responsible for the explosion, saying it was the result of “human error” while transporting munitions, Syrian state media outlet SANA reported. This was widely seen by defense analysts as an attempt to cover-up yet another Israeli strike on Syrian soil.
According to Syrian media, the attack triggered huge secondary explosions, apparently as the munitions inside the warehouse detonated. SANA reported that at least 10 people were wounded in the blasts.
Photographs and videos from the scene showed massive damage to the surrounding area as shells and other munitions inside the warehouse were set off by the explosion.
The Friday morning attack, which would be a highly irregular though not unprecedented daytime strike, came less than a day after a reported attack by Israel against pro-Iranian forces in southern Syria.
Shortly after midnight on Friday, Syria accused Israeli helicopters of firing at least five missiles at targets on the Syrian Golan Heights, just across the border from Israel.
“From the occupied Golan airspace, enemy Israeli helicopters attacked positions in the southern region with several missiles,” Syrian state news agency SANA said.
SANA said the missile strike in the area of Quneitra caused “only material damage.” It did not report any casualties or specify what was targeted.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported on the strikes, saying they targeted military positions of Iranian forces and pro-Iran militias.
The attack follows a series of strikes on Iran-linked forces in Syria in recent weeks.
Defense Minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday appeared to confirm that Israel was responsible for attacks against pro-Iranian forces in Syria, saying that the military was working to drive Tehran out of the country.
Damascus state media says IDF attacked near Quneitra, causing ‘material damage’; report follows several bombings of Iran-linked targets in recent weeks
Syria accused Israeli helicopters of carrying out airstrikes in the Syrian Golan Heights in the early hours of Friday morning.
“From the occupied Golan airspace, enemy Israeli helicopters attacked positions in the southern region with several missiles,” Syrian state news agency SANA said shortly after midnight.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, confirmed the strikes, saying they targeted military positions of Iranian forces and pro-Iran militias.
“We have moved from blocking Iran’s entrenchment in Syria to forcing it out of there, and we will not stop,” Bennett said in a statement.
“We will not allow more strategic threats to grow just across our borders without taking action,” he said. “We will continue to take the fight to the enemy’s territory.”
Private intelligence firm releases photographs of aftermath of recent attacks attributed to Israel against Iran-backed forces outside Damascus and near Palmyra
A pair of airstrikes against Iran-backed forces in Syria earlier this month that were attributed to Israel targeted a warehouse outside of Palmyra and the entrance to an underground facility near Damascus, according to satellite images released by an private Israeli intelligence firm Thursday.
Jerusalem has never officially acknowledged conducting the strikes, though Defense Minister Naftali Bennett has hinted at Israel’s involvement, repeatedly commenting that the military was working to force out Iran from Syria.
On April 20, Syria accused Israel of conducting an airstrike on a target near Palmyra. Nine pro-regime fighters were reportedly killed in the attack, three of them from the Syrian army and six foreigners, including Hezbollah members, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.
A week later, the Israeli military was accused of carrying out another attack, on the Mezzeh military airfield outside Damascus. Four pro-Iranian fighters were killed in that strike, according to the Observatory. Three Syrian civilians were also reportedly killed by shrapnel, though it was not clear if the fragments came from the incoming missiles or Syria’s air defenses.
According to the satellite imagery analysis company ImageSat International, the target of the first strike outside Palmyra was a warehouse. Before-and-after photographs from the site show that half of the structure was flattened in the missile attack.
The private intelligence firm assessed that the second attack targeted the entrance to an underground facility controlled by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ expeditionary Quds Force, the branch of Tehran’s military that works closely with Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies against Israel.
The company’s satellite images also showed that reconstruction was continuing on a command center that was destroyed in an airstrike, also attributed to Israel, in November.
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