Syria says Israeli army struck T4 air base in Homs

The Syrian army said on Tuesday that Israeli jets attacked the main T4 air base in Homs province.

It said air defences downed several missiles in strikes that caused only material damage.

An army spokesman told Syrian state media that four Israeli missiles did reach the base, but several others were intercepted and brought down.

Israel has repeatedly bombed Iranian backed militia targets in Syria, saying its goal was to end Tehran’s military presence in the war-torn country. Iran’s proxy militias, led by Lebanon’s Hezbollah, have influence in areas of eastern, southern Syria, as well as northwest and in several suburbs around the capital Damascus.

The T4 air base, which Western intelligence sources say has been used as a base for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was struck several times by Israel in recent years. The base is also home to Syrian regime forces and Russian air forces.

The Israel Defence Force did not immediately comment on the attack.

Israel in the past has said Iran uses the T4 base to transfer weapons to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia group with which it fought a deadly month-long war in 2006.

The attack on Tuesday comes at a time of heightening tensions between Washington and Tehran, following the killing of Qassem Suleimani, Iran’s top military general, in a drone strike on January 3.

Iran has vowed to avenge his killing and responded by firing missiles at two US bases in Iraq a week later. There were no casualties in those attacks.

Last week, a Ukraine International Airlines plane crashed, killing all 176 people on board. The Iranian military admitted at the weekend that it shot the aircraft down by mistake.