Syria Says It Confronted Israeli Attack On Iran-Backed Forces

Suspected Israeli warplanes targeted Iranian and Iran-backed fighters in eastern Syria near the historic town of Palmyra.

Syrian state media SANA said late April 20 that air defenses “confronted an Israeli missile aggression” and “shot down a number of the hostile missiles before reaching their targets.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said the targets were “military posts for Iranian militias in the Palmyra desert.”

There was no immediate confirmation of casualties. Syrian state media regularly overstates the success of the country’s defenses against Israeli strikes.

The Israel Defense Forces did not comment.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria in recent years targeting Iranian forces, Syrian government forces, and allied militia.

Western and Israeli intelligence say Iranian forces and allied militia use the eastern Syrian dessert bordering Iraq to transfer fighters and advanced weapons systems to support the Syrian government and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Last week, an Israeli drone fired two missiles at a vehicle carrying members of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Syria close to the border with Lebanon. Hezbollah said its members escaped.

The strikes on April 20 came as Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif was in Damascus where he met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Syrian counterpart.

Along with Russia, Tehran has provided crucial military support to Assad during the country’s civil war, which entered its 10th year last month.

With reporting by AFP, AP, SANA, and Reuters