Syria Says Israel Has Struck Airbase with Missiles for Third Time in Five Months

• Syria Says Israel Has Struck Airbase with Missiles for Third Time in Five Months
  by Agence France-Presse, https://www.scmp.com/frontpage/hk
  Syria on Sunday accused Israel of targeting an airbase in the central province of Homs, saying its defences hit a jet involved in the third such attack in five months.
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  “Our air defences are responding to an Israeli aggression and intercepting a number of missiles targeting the airport, hitting one of the attacking planes and forcing the rest to leave the airspace,” the official SANA news agency quoted a military source as saying.
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  Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that a missile bombardment killed an unspecified number of “Iranian and pro-regime fighters” at the T-4 base and was “likely to be Israeli”.
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  In addition to the Syrian army, Iranian fighters and Lebanese Hezbollah troops are also stationed at the airbase, according to the Observatory. The facility has previously been targeted by repeated strikes Damascus blamed on Israel.
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  An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the latest incident, saying: “We do not comment on reports in the foreign media”.
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  Syrian state outlets published a video of a flash in the dark sky, claiming it showed the air defences responding to the bombardment. Since the start of Syria’s civil war in 2011, Israel has repeatedly targeted positions of the Syrian army and Lebanon’s Shiite movement Hezbollah backing it inside the country. Israel usually does not claim the strikes, but has long said it will not allow Iran to establish a military presence in Syria.
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