Strikes reach Syria's Homs province

 

Homs province, Syria

Border crossings between Lebanon and Syria were targeted with strikes late Tuesday, Lebanon transportation minister Ali Hamieh said.

Sana, Syria\’s state media, confirmed the strikes, which Hamieh said came just after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was announced. Israel had increased raids on these crossings and had sealed off those roads to Syria, according to Reuters.

Syrian state TV said 10 people were injured, three of them critically. Israel did not immediately comment.

Earlier Tuesday, Syrian state news reported that two villages in Syria\’s Homs province were hit with strikes in what it described as Israeli aggression.

A website affiliated with the Syrian opposition reported that "the air defense is confronting Israeli missiles in the skies of Homs," according to Ynetnews.com.

Syrian state television said blasts had been heard near Homs city and their source was under investigation.

Israel has conducted strikes against Iran-linked organizations in Syria for years. However, Israeli attacks on Syria have grown following Israel\’s war in Gaza that began in October 2023 and the ongoing hostilities between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The U.S. military also hit an Iranian-linked site in Syria on Tuesday, the U.S. Central Command said. The site was a weapons storage facility and was in retaliation for an attack on Monday on U.S. forces.

Last week, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported there have been more than 150 Israeli strikes on Syria this year. SOHR said the strikes targeted Iranian-back militants in Syria\’s provinces.

Iran is a major supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad\’s government, building a significant military presence in Syria in recent years, supported by dozens of proxy groups, including Hezbollah and several Iraqi militias.

Local media reports in Syria last week said that amid increased Israeli strikes, Iran sent some of its proxies from Syria to Iraq, including at least a dozen high-ranking military advisers who had been deployed in Damascus and Palmyra.

Seth Frantzman, an adjunct fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, has offered a different explanation for the movement of Iranian proxies in the region.

"Iran may be moving proxies around Iraq and Syria in order to threaten Israel and may feel the need to move them more often so that they preserve operational security in case of Israeli retaliation," he told VOA.

"Iran also likely wants to mobilize proxy forces in case of a ceasefire in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah so it can increase threats to Israel on other fronts," Frantzman said.

Iran\’s Foreign Ministry recently said there has been no change in the status or number of their military advisers in Syria.

Some information provided by Reuters and Agence France-Presse.

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