Israeli rockets strike military position near Aleppo - Syrian state media

Israeli rockets strike military position near Aleppo - Syrian state media
By Reuters
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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian state media said on Sunday that Israeli rockets had struck a Syrian military position near Nairab airport on the outskirts of the city of Aleppo.

"The Zionist enemy...targets one of our military sites north of Nairab airport," the Syrian state news agency SANA said, quoting a military source.

It said the strikes were an attempt by Israel to support rebels in southern Syria, where Syrian government forces have been waging an offensive.

An Israeli military spokesman declined comment on the report. Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Monday told media outlet Ynet that he had no knowledge of the incident but said Israel's policy towards Iran in Syria had not changed.

"We will not allow Iranian entrenchment within Syria. We will not let them to turn Syria into a kind of vanguard against the State of Israel. And we take action in accordance with our security interests," he said.

Israel, concerned that Iran's growing presence in Syria poses a threat to its security, has struck dozens of Iranian and Iran-backed positions in Syria over the course of the seven-year conflict.

Iran is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and supports a number of militias, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, fighting in support of his rule.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the strikes killed nine people at a logistics site used by Iran's Revolutionary Guards near the airport.

State media said the strikes caused only "material damage".

There was no reaction to the strikes in Iranian media.

(Reporting by Lisa Barrington; Additional reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Editing by Gareth Jones and Peter Cooney/Mark Heinrich)

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