Syria says Israeli strike on Tartous coast wounds two civilians | Syria’s War News

Syria accuses Israel of launching an ‘air aggression’ from across the Mediterranean.

An Israeli strike on Syria’s coast south of Tartous has wounded two civilians on Saturday, the Syrian defense ministry says.

Damascus accused Tel Aviv of launching an “air aggression” from across the Mediterranean, west of Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli, with several missiles targeting south of Tartous.

“The Israeli enemy carried out an air strike” at about 6:30 am near the town of al-Hamidiyah, the ministry said in a statement, identifying the locations hit as poultry farms, without elaborating.

It “led to the injury of two civilians, including a woman”, the statement said.

There was no immediate reaction from Israel on the raid. While Israel rarely comments on individual attacks, it has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of air raids in Syria since civil war broke out in 2011.

It says the strikes are necessary to prevent regional rival Iran from gaining a foothold on its doorstep.

The raids have targeted Syrian government troops as well as allied Iran-backed forces and fighters from the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah.

Last month Israel strikes at Damascus International Airport rendered its runways unusable for weeks.

The airport was targeted by a volley of missiles fired from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, state media reported.

Besides the extensive damage caused to civilian and military runways, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the attacks had targeted nearby warehouses used as weapons depots by Iran and Hezbollah.

The Syrian war has killed nearly half a million people and forced about half of the country’s pre-war population from their homes.