Syria Claims Israeli Air Force Attacked Iranian IRGC Bases Near Homs, Palmyra

State-run Syrian media reported late Monday night the country’s air defenses responded to air strikes targeting military bases near Homs and Palmyra. Syria blamed Israel for the attack.

“Air defenses of the Syrian Arab Army confronted … an Israeli aggression over Palmyra, east of Homs at around 11 pm, and shot down a number of the hostile missiles before reaching their targets,” the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.

Local sources said the air strikes were aimed at Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and Hezbollah targets in Syria Arab Army (SAA) bases near the Tiyas (T-4) Air Base and Palmyra, in Homs governorate.

Multiple explosions were heard by residents in the Palmyra area, according to the Sputnik news agency and other international news sources.

There has been no comment from the Israel Defense Forces, in accordance with standard government policy.

Iran’s Foreign Minister in Damascus

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived in Damascus Monday for the first time in a year to meet with Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, with both men wearing face masks and Zarif in blue plastic gloves as well.

There are more than 83,500 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus in Iran, and the Tehran government has officially acknowledged the deaths of at least 5,200 citizens from the virus.

Zarif told Assad that the targeted assassination by drone attack in Iraq earlier this year of IRGC Quds Force Commander, General Qassem Soleimani would not change Iran’s support “for the resistance and the fight against terrorism in the region,” according to the Tasnim News Agency.

Zarif met earlier in the day with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem; the two stressed “the importance of continued coordination and the exchange of information and expertise between . . . the two countries to enhance their ability to confront” the pandemic,” according to a report published by Aljazeera.