Deaths reported after Israel strikes Iranian targets in Syria

JERUSALEM - Israeli fighter jets attacked dozens of sites in Syria in "a wide-scale" airstrike on Wednesday, retaliating against rocket fire from Syria a day earlier, the Israeli military said.

Syrian state media reported that two civilians were killed, while the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll was 11.

Seven were foreigners, the group's head Rami Abdel Rahman said, though he could not confirm whether they were all Iranian. Four civilians were also wounded, he added.

The Israeli military issued a statement saying the predawn strikes targeted sites belonging to the Iranian Quds Forces and the Syrian army near Damascus and in southwest Syria, near its disputed border with Israel.

The targets included surface-to-air missiles, headquarters, weapons warehouses, and military bases. Several Syrian aerial defense batteries were destroyed in the airstrikes, according to the military.

The Syrian army said in a statement that the Israeli fighter jets arrived from the Golan Heights and the Lebanese Marj Oyoun area.

"Our air defenses were able to intercept the hostile missiles, destroying most of them before reaching their targets," read the statement.

Syria's state SANA news agency said the two civilians were killed by shrapnel when an Israeli missile hit a house in the town of Saasaa, southwest of Damascus. It said several others were wounded, including a girl in a residential building in the suburb of Qudsaya, also west of the Syrian capital.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes were a retaliation for four rockets that had been launched from Syria toward Israel on Tuesday. Israel's aerial defense systems intercepted the rockets.

Israel believed an Iran-backed Shiite militia was behind the rocket fire.

"I made it clear: Whoever harms us, we will harm them. That's what we did tonight," Netanyahu said early on Wednesday. "We will continue to aggressively protect Israel's security."

Israel's new hard-line Defense Minister Naftali Bennett issued an equally firm statement.

"The rules have changed: Whoever fires on Israel during the day will not sleep at night," he said. "Our message to the leaders of Iran is simple: You are no longer immune. Any place you dispatch your tentacles, we will chop them off."

The Israeli army said in a statement that it "holds the Syrian regime responsible for actions taken in its territory and warns it from operating or allowing hostilities against Israel", adding that further rockets will be answered with "a severe response".

"The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) will continue operating firmly and resolutely against the Iranian entrenchment in Syria," the statement read, adding that the military is prepared for "various scenarios".

Russia condemned the attack.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov was quoted by TASS news agency as saying the operation "totally contradicts international law".

"We are going to examine the circumstances. All this is very bad," he added.

The strikes further highlight the sprawling tensions between Israel and Iran in Syria. Clashes between the two countries have escalated over the past months. Israel accuses Iran of entrenching itself near the Israeli border.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria against Iranian targets and convoys transporting weapons to Hezbollah, an Iranbacked Lebanese militia.

Xinhua - Agencies