The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Thursday night cited sources that reported hearing sporadic, loud explosions emanating from weapons and ammunitions warehouses belonging to Iranian-backed militias in the western countryside of Hama, some 140 miles north of Damascus. The explosions continued for four hours after the Israeli airstrikes on these positions.
The explosion followed enormous blazes, the results of the destruction of large amounts of weapons and ammunition, with confirmed reports of casualties. The Observatory reported that Thursday’s attack by Israeli fighter jets was the most violent ever on positions of Iranian-backed militias.
One of the targets that were attacked was the Center for Scientific Research in the Hama region, where the Iranians are producing improved, GPS-guided missiles to be used by Hezbollah against Israeli civilian centers.
The official Syrian news agency SANA reported that the army’s air defenses repelled Israeli missile aggression that targeted the surroundings of Hama and Tartous.” A military source said that around 7:15 PM on Thursday, the army air defenses repelled Israeli missile aggression from the direction of the sea to the southwest of Tartous.
“Most of the aggression missiles that targeted the surroundings of Hama and Tartous were downed,” the source said, adding that the attack “injured two civilians, caused material losses, and set fires to different areas.”
The Observatory report noted that the targeted areas were used to host the military headquarters and posts, as well as weapons and ammunition warehouses of the Iranian-backed militias. The enormous fires erupted as a result of the Israeli airstrikes and shrapnel of the air-defense missiles that attempted to intercept the Israeli missiles.
