BEIRUT: Israeli strikes on Syria’s west killed two soldiers, state media said on Wednesday, with a war monitor reporting claimed a militant was also killed when the air raid hit a Hezbollah weapons depot.

“At exactly 17:22 (1422 GMT) this afternoon, the Israeli enemy carried out strikes... from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea targeting some of our air defence sites in Tartus,” official news agency SANA quoted an unnamed military source as saying.

“The aggression led to the death of two soldiers, and wounded six others,” the report said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the latest strikes hit in addition to army positions a weapons depot belonging to Iran-backed Hezbollah near Al-Jammasah in Tartus province.

Al-Jammasah is located south of Tartus city, a bastion of the Syrian government and home to a naval port used by Russia, whose armed forces have backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Britain-based monitor with a network of sources inside Syria confirmed the deaths of two soldiers, adding that a fighter whose nationality was unknown had also been killed.

The Observatory said the strikes targeted a Syrian air defence base in the village of Karto, about 10 kilometres (six miles) away.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said: “We do not comment on reports in foreign media.” Israel rarely comments on individual strikes it carries out on targets in Syria, but it has repeatedly said it would not allow its archfoe Iran, which supports Damascus, to expand its footprint there.

Anti-government protesters

Three protesters were wounded by gunfire on Wednesday while trying to weld shut a branch of Syria’s ruling Baath party in a southern province hit by nearly a month of anti-government demonstrations.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2023