Syrian regime defences intercept Israeli strike on air base

Syrian regime air defences on Wednesday intercepted missiles fired by an Israeli warplane at an air base in central Syria, regime news agency SANA said, in the second such Israeli strike this week.

"An aircraft belonging to the Israeli enemy fired this evening a number of missiles... towards the T4 air base and our air defences intercepted most of them," SANA said citing a military source.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the attack on the air base in Homs province saying Israel was "likely" responsible.

Wednesday's attack was the second this week, after Israeli strikes on Monday killed one civilian, three regime troops and seven fighters from foreign militias allied to the Assad regime.

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Monday's strikes hit regime army positions south of Damascus as well as positions belonging to Iran-backed paramilitaries, including fighters of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, in the southern province of Daraa, the Observatory said.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria since the Syrian conflict broke out in 2011, targeting Iranian and Hezbollah forces as well as regime troops.

The Israeli army rarely acknowledges individual strikes, but said that on August 3 it had used fighter jets, attack helicopters and other warplanes to hit regime military targets in southern Syria.

Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah warned on Sunday that the group would kill an Israeli soldier for each of its fighters killed by Israel.

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