DAMASCUS / BEIRUT: An early-morning strike on a Syrian government air base in the country’s centre killed 14 fighters, including Iranian forces allied to the regime, a monitoring group said on Monday.
“At least 14 fighters were killed in the strike on the T-4 airport, among them Iranian forces,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.
Syrian state media had earlier reported dead and wounded in the strike, without giving casualty figures.
The T-4 base lies in Syria’s central Homs province and is also known as the Tiyas airport.
Forces from regime allies Russia and Iran, as well as fighters from the Tehran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah militia, are known to have a presence there, said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.
The Observatory, which has a wide network of sources across war-ravaged Syria, said it could not confirm who carried out the attack on the T-4 base
Israel carried out strikes against a Syrian government base in the country’s centre in February, with the Observatory identifying it at the time as T-4.
Israel has struck targets inside Syria on multiple occasions throughout the country’s seven-year war, including those linked to Iran and Hezbollah or to Assad’s chemical weapons programme. An Israeli military spokesperson declined to comment.
The raid came as worldwide outrage mounted over a reported chemical weapons attack on a militant-controlled town outside the Syrian capital.
A Syrian military airport was hit with deadly missile strikes, state media reported Monday, after the US and France warned of a strong response to “horrific chemical weapons attacks” on a militant-held region near Damascus.
France did not carry out an air strike on a Syrian government air base early Monday that reportedly left several dead and wounded, the French army said.
“It was not us,” armed forces spokesman Colonel Patrik Steiger told AFP.
Washington denied responsibility for the strike on Syria’s central Tayfur air base, which came just hours ahead of an urgent UN meeting Monday over the reported use of toxic gas on the town of Douma.
US President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone and vowed a “strong, joint response” to the suspected chemical attack that killed dozens, the White House said Sunday.
