More than 16 people were killed in Israeli air strikes on several military facilities in central Syria, the official Syrian news agency reports.
Sana quoted a health official as saying another 36 people were injured in the attacks near Masyaf in Hama province on Sunday evening.
A UK-based monitoring group said 25 people were killed and that the five targets included a scientific research center suspected of being linked to chemical weapons production.
The Israeli military declined comments on foreign media reports of the attacks, which the Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned as “blatant aggression” and the Iranian Foreign Ministry called it a “criminal attack”.
However, Israel has previously admitted to carrying out hundreds of attacks in recent years against targets in Syria that it says are linked to Iran – Israel’s main enemy – and allied armed groups.
Israeli attacks have intensified since the Gaza war began in October last year in response to cross-border attacks against northern Israel by Hezbollah and other groups in Lebanon and Syria.
According to Sana, citing a Syrian military source, Israeli jets flying over northwestern Lebanon fired missiles at “a number of military sites in the central region” around 11:20 pm (20:20 GMT) on Sunday.
“Our air defense shot down some missiles,” added the military source.
The news agency said the attacks also damaged the Masyaf-Wadi al-Oyoun highway and a fire broke out in the Hair Abbas forest area.
The health director of Hama province said 16 people were killed and six of the 36 injured were in critical condition.
State television channel Al-Ikhbariya al-Suriyah also broadcast footage showing a damaged building in the port city of Tartous, west of Masyaf.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) – a monitoring group based in the UK with a network of sources on the ground – said Israeli strikes destroyed buildings and military installations in the “Masyaf Scientific Research Area “, in Masyaf-Wadi al-Oyoun highway and in Hair Abbas.
It said at least 25 people were killed, including five civilians, four members of the Syrian government forces and 13 Syrians working for pro-Iranian groups. Three other bodies have not been identified, it added.
The SOHR said Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers have been deployed at the scientific research site for six years in the program to develop short- and medium-range precision missiles and drones.
The Reuters news agency also quoted two regional intelligence sources as saying that a major military research center for the production of chemical weapons was hit severally.
Western intelligence agencies have previosly claimed that a branch of the Scientific and Research Center (SSRC) near Masyaf was being used to produce chemical weapons in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
The Syrian government has denied the allegation. However, the facility is said to have been the target of a suspected Israeli attack in September 2017, a day after a deadly chemical attack on a rebel-held town in northern Syria that the UN and Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons accused the Syrian Air Force of being responsible for the attack.
According to the SOHR, Israeli airstrikes and artillery have targeted Syrian territory 64 times since the beginning of the year, resulting in the destruction or damage of approximately 140 targets, including weapons depots, vehicles and the headquarters of Iranian-backed militias.
The attacks killed at least 205 fighters — including 46 members of Syrian government forces, 40 members of Hezbollah and 24 Iranian Revolutionary Guards — as well as 25 civilians, according to the monitoring organization.
In April, Israel was accused by Iran of carrying out an air strike on a consulate in Damascus that killed two senior commanders of the Revolutionary Guard.
Iran retaliated by carrying out its first direct military attack against Israel. It launched 300 missiles and drones, but almost all of them were shot down by Israeli and US-led forces.
Source: BBC News
