Syrian air-defences respond to an earlier Israeli air-strike.<\/p>\n
Syria’s air defences on Monday intercepted an Israeli attack on Al-Safirah area of southern Aleppo, Syrian state media reported, a location where Israel has repeatedly hit a growing Iranian presence.<\/p>\n
A Syrian military spokesman told state media the damage was being assessed after air defences downed most of the missiles that targeted a number of unspecified locations.<\/p>\n
Syrian opposition forces said the airstrikes targeted Iranian Revolutionary Guard bases and a weapons plant, in a continuation of Israeli attacks against Iranian military research and development activities over the past year.<\/p>\n
The Syrian government has never acknowledged the strikes are aimed at Iranian assets, which it has said are limited to some advisors.<\/p>\n
However, Syrian military sources say Iran has a strong presence in the province in northern Syria, including elite Revolutionary Guard officers at the Kuweires military air base 30 kilometers east of the city.<\/p>\n
An Israeli army spokesperson said the Israeli military does not comment on foreign reports. Israeli officials have said earlier missile strikes slowed Iran\u2019s entrenchment in Syria.<\/p>\n
Explosions were heard across Aleppo, which was Syria’s most populated urban centre and a commercial and industrial powerhouse before the war.<\/p>\n
Authorities said work was underway to repair the main electricity cable to the city after a direct hit cut power.<\/p>\n
The airstrikes are the first since a new Israeli government led by Naftali Bennett came to power last month.<\/p>\n
Bennett has vowed to maintain his predecessor’s policy of containment of Iran’s military expansion in Syria, a development Israel’s defence establishment says has upset the region’s strategic balance.<\/p>\n
Western intelligence sources say Israeli strikes on Syria are part of a shadow war approved by the United States and part of a policy to undermine Iran’s military power without triggering a major increase in hostilities.<\/p>\n
Washington recently carried out strikes against facilities belonging to Iranian-backed militias in eastern Syria in response to rocket attacks against U.S. targets in Iraq.<\/p>\n
The Pentagon earlier this month said it was deeply concerned about a series of retaliatory attacks on U.S. personnel based in the northeast of the country who came under fire from Iranian backed militias operating in the area that borders Iraq.<\/p>\n
Thousands of Iranian-backed militias have had a growing presence across Syria in the last year after helping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regain territory once lost to insurgents.<\/p>\n