BEIRUT, Feb 7, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Israeli strikes on Syria's Homs killed five
people including three civilians Wednesday, a war monitor said, with Syria's
defence ministry reporting an unspecified number of civilians dead.

"Five people have been killed including three civilians -- a woman, a child,
and a man -- and seven others were injured in Israeli strikes on a building
in the Hamra neighbourhood of Homs city," said the Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights, updating an earlier toll of four.

The identities of the two non-civilian casualties were unknown, the monitor
said.

Syria's defence ministry reported that "the Israeli enemy launched air
strikes from the direction north of Tripoli (Lebanon) targeting a number of
sites in the city of Homs and its countryside... killing and injuring a
number of civilians".

Syrian state television shared footage of rescuers rummaging through the
rubble of what appeared to be a collapsed building and carrying someone on a
stretcher.

Earlier, Syrian state television reported "an Israeli assault" on central
Syria, in Homs province.

Last week, the United States carried out strikes on Iran-backed groups in
Syria and Iraq, killing dozens in retaliation for a deadly attack on its
troops in Jordan.

Israel had also struck targets in Syria twice that week. On Friday, Israeli
strikes killed three pro-Iran fighters south of Damascus, according to the
Observatory, with Iranian media reporting an adviser from the Revolutionary
Guards was among the dead.

Last Monday, Israeli strikes near Damascus killed eight people, including
pro-Iran fighters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had said.

During more than a decade of civil war in Syria, Israel launched hundreds of
air strikes in the country, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces as well as
Syrian army positions.

But such attacks have intensified since the war in Gaza between Israel and
Hamas began on October 7.

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes targeting Syria but has
repeatedly said it will not allow Iran, which backs President Bashar al-
Assad's government, to expand its presence there.

Since 2011, Syria has endured a bloody conflict that has killed more than
half a million people and displaced millions.