Suspected Israeli Strike Hits Syrian Air Base Used By Iran

Military sources said the air base, at Shayrat, was recently used by the Iranian air force.

Syrian state media posted a short video of the "aggression" and said there were material damages, without elaborating.

One military source, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the strikes had targeted a runway in the sprawling air base that is located southeast of Homs city.

A spokesperson for the Israeli military refused to comment, although Israel has conducted hundreds of similar strikes since 2017.

The runway and underground facilities at Shayrat, including aircraft shelters, have undergone a major expansion by the Russian military in the last three years, the military source said.

Russia has forces stationed near to Shayrat air base and uses the base, security sources say.

Israel has in recent months intensified strikes on Syrian airports and air bases to disrupt Iran's increasing use of aerial supply lines to deliver arms to allies in Syria and Lebanon including Lebanon's Hezbollah.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which monitors such events said a warehouse for Iranian militias and Hezbollah in Shayrat air base were destroyed in Sunday's strike.

Opposition sources say Iranian militias hold sway in large swathes of western Homs province near the Lebanese border and to the east where they have a string of bases.

Israel has been mounting attacks in Syria for years against what it has described as Iranian and Iran-backed forces that have deployed there during the war, which began more than a decade ago.

With reporting by Reuters