AMMAN: Syria and its main ally Russia blamed Israel for carrying out an attack on a Syrian air base near Homs on Monday which followed reports of a poison gas attack by President Bashar al Assad’s forces on a rebel-held town.
Israel, which has struck Syrian army locations many times in the course of its neighbour’s seven-year-old civil war, has not confirmed nor denied mounting the raid.
But Israeli officials said the Tiyas, or T-4, air base was being used by troops from across the border and that Israel would not accept such a presence in Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor, said at least 14 people were killed including some fighters of various nationalities, a reference to militia members, mostly from Iraq, Lebanon and Iran fighting alongside the Syrian army.
The attack demonstrated the multi-faceted nature of the Syria conflict, which started in March 2011 as an uprising and now involves several countries and various insurgent groups in a web of alliances.
It took place hours after US President Donald Trump warned of a “big price to pay” following the reports of a poison gas attack on the rebel-held town of Douma which killed dozens of people, including children.
Damascus denied its forces had launched any chemical assault and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said such allegations were false and a provocation.
Lavrov also said the strike on the T-4 base was a dangerous development.
Syrian state TV initially said the United States was suspected of carrying out the attack on T-4.
Washington denied this, and France, which in February had said it would strike in the event of a chemical weapon attack on civilians by Syrian government forces, also said its forces were not involved.
The Russian military, whose support for Assad has turned the war in his favour, said two Israeli F-15 war planes carried out the strike.
Interfax news agency cited the Russian Defence Ministry as saying Syrian air defence systems had shot down five of eight missiles fired.
Syrian state media, citing a military source, carried a similar report. “The Israeli aggression on the T4 airport was carried out with F-15 planes that fired several missiles from above Lebanese land,” state news agency SANA said.
The Israeli government had no immediate comment.
Defence analysts say a number of Russian troops are also based there and jets fly regular sorties from T-4.
Housing Minister Yoav Galant, while also not confirming that Israel had carried out the attack, said: “We have clear interests in Syria. We laid down red lines there, which said that we would not allow Syrian land to be a springboard for game-changing weaponry to Lebanon, we would not allow the building of a foreign army in Syria and we would not allow the opening of another front on the Golan Heights.
“In this context we are taking action with all means, over time.”
As international officials worked to try to confirm Saturday’s chemical attack on Douma, a Syria medical relief group said at least 60 people had been killed there and more than 1,000 injured in several sites.
The toll is likely to rise, said the Union of Medical Care Organizations (UOSSM), a group of international aid agencies.
“The numbers keep rising as relief workers struggle to gain access to the subterranean areas where
gas has entered and hundreds of families had sought refuge,” the group said.
The Syrian American Medical Society and the civil defence service, which operates in rebel-held areas, said 49 people had been killed in the suspected gas attack.
— AFP
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