(Zaman Al Wasl)- Pro-regime media mourned 25 fighters loyal to Bashar al-Assad said they had been killed in the overnight missile attack on Iran-run base in Hama province.
Most of the slain fighters were Syrians from coastal region.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack appears to have been carried out by Israel and targeted an arms depot for surface-to-surface missiles at a base in northern Syria known as Brigade 47. The Observatory said 22 Iranain and four Syrians were among casualties.
It said the death toll could rise as the attack also wounded 60 fighters and there were several others are still missing.
On April 1, local activists reported similar explosions in Brigade 47 which lies on the mountainous area between Homs and Hama provinces and run by Iran since 2012.
According to reports, the strikes might hit the Scientific Research center in Jabal Taqsis in the same region.
The attack comes amid rising tensions between Iran and Israel following an airstrike earlier this month on Syria's T4 air base in central province of Homs that killed seven Iranian military personnel. Syria, Iran and Russia blamed Israel for that attack. Israel did not confirm or deny it.
Israel Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in an interview published last Thursday that his country will strike Tehran if attacked by archenemy Iran, escalating an already tense war of words between the two adversaries, according to AP.
Tehran has sent thousands of Iran-backed fighters to back Bashar Assad's forces in the country's seven-year civil war.
Iranian state television, citing Syrian media, reported Monday's attack. The semiofficial ISNA news agency, citing "local sources and activists," said the strike killed 18 Iranians, including a commander, in a suburb of the central city of Hama.
The missiles targeted buildings and centers which likely include a weapons depot, ISNA reported.
Earlier on Monday, Syrian TV reported a "new aggression," with missiles targeting military outposts in northern Syria. The state-run television reported that the missiles targeted military outposts in the Hama and Aleppo countryside.
Syria-based opposition media activist Mohamad Rasheed said that base that came under attack is about 10 kilometers (7 miles) outside the city of Hama adding that airstrike led to several explosions in the arms depot. He added that the area is known as the Maarin Mountain or Mountain 47.
Rasheed said that some of the exploding missiles in the arms depot struck parts of Hama adding that residents in areas near the base fled their homes. He said the base has been run by Iranian and Iran-backed fighters from Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
More than 119,000 pro-regime forces have been killed, including 62,000 troops, tens of thousands of loyalist militiamen, and 1,556 fighters from Hezbollah, according to an estimate by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (Zaman Al Wasl, Agencies)
Zaman Al Wasl
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