Israeli Airstrikes Hit Target In Syrian Baniyas
On the morning of July 9, Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Baniyas located in the northern part of the country.
According to a Syrian military source, “at approximately 00:20 a.m, the Israeli enemy launched an aerial aggression from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea west of Baniyas, targeting one of the points in the vicinity of Baniyas city.” He further noted that the attack caused some material losses.
Israeli media claim that the air defense system belonging to groups affiliated with Iran has been attacked on the coast of Banias.
This attack took place just one day after an Iranian cargo ship docked in the port of Latakia.
However, the Israeli army has not released a statement about the attack. Israel rarely reports on attacks on Syria.
This is the third targeting of Baniyas since the beginning of 2024. On May 29, a residential building in Baniyas was hit by Israeli airstrikes, leading to the death of a girl and the injury of ten civilians.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that two explosions were heard in Baniyas, resulting from two Israeli missiles that targeted at least two buildings, one of which belonged to an air defence battalion on Arab Al-Malik Beach in Al-Qaloua area near Baniyas city
The SOHR pro-opposition monitoring group added that “the targeting led to the outbreak of a large fire in one of the targeted sites, without the air defences launching to confront the Israeli raid, unlike most previous targeting.”
It should be noted that the latest Israeli airstrike in Syria took place on June 27, when a series of strikes hit Syria’s southern region. According to local sources, the strikes reportedly targeted the Shiite town of Seyyedah Zaynab to the south of the Syrian capital, Damascus, where Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Lebanese Hezbollah are known to be present and active. The attack reportedly resulted in killing of at least two people.
Israel has significantly escalated its attacks on Syria since the outbreak of the war in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza Strip, targeting Syrian military sites as well as alleged assets of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hezbollah and other Iranian affiliated forces. Syrian government and army has been refraining from responding directly to Israeli attacks in an effort to avoid a full-scale conflict.
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