BICOM

The Syrian T-4 military air base in Homs province was attacked last night for the third time this year.

The base, which is known to house Iranian and other Shiite militias’ forces loyal to the Syrian regime, was hit by five missiles according to Al Jazeera. The target was reportedly an advanced Iranian air-defence system that was recently installed.

According to the official Syrian news agency SANA, Syrian air defences were activated as aircraft, reportedly coming into the country from Jordan, approached the base near Tiyas. The planes flew at low altitude to avoid detection and passed over the al-Tanaf area, where US forces are based.

Syria has blamed Israel for the attack but the Israeli armed forces refused to comment on the reports. In April, a senior Israeli military officer confirmed to the New York Times that Israel had hit the T-4 military air-base. The military source said: “It was the first time we attacked live Iranian targets — both facilities and people.”

Last night’s attack took place after Russian and Syrian forces agreed a ceasefire with rebels in Queintra and Daraa in southern Syria. The ceasefire is contingent upon opposition fighters handing over their heavy weapons and allowing the government to take control of the areas.

Following the ceasefire announcement, thousands of the 230,000 displaced Syrians returned to their homes after more than two weeks of deadly bombing raids. Over the weekend the British based Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said regime air strikes continued in two areas and killed four civilians.

On Friday, the IDF targeted a Syrian military post after a shell was launched from it and landed in the UN buffer zone on the Golan border. The shell was thought to have been fired as part of internal fighting between regime forces and rebels in Syria.

According to the IDF, Israel “is not involved in the internal fighting in Syria, however, it will continue to implement the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement that includes maintaining the buffer zone”.