The Syrian military said that bases in Hama and Aleppo were targeted by rocket strikes late on April 29, according to the state-run news agency SANA.
A military source told SANA the strikes began at around 10:30 pm local time.
The strikes appear to have caused an explosion strong enough to register as seismic activity. At 10:40 pm, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre reported the equivalent of a magnitude-2.6 earthquake around 10 miles from Hama.
This video, from a local pro-government source, shows a huge explosion in Hama at what the source said was the base of the 47th army brigade, one of the reported locations the strikes hit.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least 26 people, mostly Iranian and Iraqi militia members, were killed. Storyful cannot confirm this figure.
The observatory was among a number of sources to attribute the strikes to Israel. Haaretz reported on pro-Assad media also pointing to Israel.
Haaretz also said the strike was “likely” targeted at Iranian weapons stores, including surface-to-surface missiles, and that a security cabinet meeting was convened on Monday, April 30. “After the attack on Syria attributed to Israel on Sunday night, at least the fifth since September, there seems to be little room for doubt. Israel is determined to uproot the Iranian military presence from Syria,” it said.
Reuters quoted an Israeli military spokesman, Lieut-Col Jonathan Conricus, as saying, “We don’t comment on foreign reports and we have no information at this time.” Credit: Kfarbou 4 All via Storyful
