Syria Calls Alleged Israeli Air Strike ‘State Terrorism’

Syria accused Israel on Tuesday of committing “state terrorism” after alleging that the Jewish state conducted an air strike at 1 a.m. local time on Monday that killed 15 people, including civilians. “Israeli authorities are increasingly practicing state terrorism,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement reported by SANA news agency. According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Israeli air strikes targeting at least a dozen Iranian-linked assets in the northwest Homs province killed nine mostly foreign pro-regime fighters, as well as six civilians. It is unclear why there were civilians present. Israel has not commented on the attack. Syria’s Foreign Ministry filed a complaint to the United Nations Security Council over the attack, demanding accountability, according to SANA. Israel has carried out air strikes in Syria since the beginning of that country’s civil war in 2011, targeting forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – an ally of Iran – and Iran’s proxy, the Lebanon-based Hizbullah. Yossi Cohen, head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, said on Monday that Israel “can’t agree to Syria becoming a staging ground for Iranian forces or forces operated by it against us. We can’t agree to Syria becoming a logistics base for transferring weapons to Hizbullah and Lebanon.”