Syria reports fresh missile strike, attackers unknown yet

Source
Xinhuanet
Editor
Li Jiayao
Time
2018-04-30 15:05:37

DAMASCUS, April 30 (Xinhua) -- A fresh missile strike targeted Syrian military positions in Hama and Aleppo countryside on Sunday night, the same day evacuation of rebels began in southern Damascus, Syrian state TV reported.

Without saying who was behind the missile strike, the TV channel aired a short footage of fire emerging from a site, saying, "Military sites in the countryside of Hama and Aleppo have been subject to a new aggression with hostile missiles around 10:30 p.m."

Other reports said the Regiment 47 military base in Hama was targeted, causing a big fire and explosions that rocked Hama as the Syrian air defense responded to the missile strike.

While opposition activists in the area hailed the strike, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the targeted base contains Iranian fighters as well.

Earlier this month, seven Iranians were killed in an airstrike targeting Iranian-backed military positions in central Homs Province, according to Iranian media.

Further details about the fresh missile strike are awaited.

On Sunday, a deal was reached between the rebels and the Syrian army in the towns of Yalda, Babila and Beit Sahem south of Damascus, as the Syrian army launched a crushing offensive against rebel-held areas.

As per the deal, rebels and their families will be evacuated to rebel-held areas in the northwestern province of Idlib.

A day earlier, after battles with Islamic State (IS) militants, the Syrian army fully secured four neighborhoods in southern Damascus -- al-Qadam, Mazaniyeh, Asali and Jourah -- and closed in on a key bastion of the terror group in that part of the capital.

IS lost its major stronghold late last year as the Syrian army captured large swathes of the Syrian desert near the Iraqi border and most areas west of the Euphrates in Deir al-Zour Province in eastern Syria.

U.S.-backed Kurd-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) holds the province's areas east of the river and IS de facto capital Raqqa north of Syria.

On Monday, the Syrian army stripped the SDF of areas in Deir al-Zour but the SDF later said in a statement that it recaptured the whole area in a counteroffensive.

The fresh missile strike came after the United States, Britain, and France launched a series of missile strikes on Syrian military positions on April 14 in retaliation to an alleged toxic gas attack on a former rebel-held area east of Damascus.

The state TV has been airing interviews with local analysts who say a new aggression is carried out against Syria every time the Syrian army scores progress on the ground, especially now that it is closing in on IS in the Hajar al-Aswad area south of Damascus.

 

 

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