Syria Support Movement solidarity with the Syrian people
by Jake Johnson, published on Common Dreams, September 9, 2024
The Israeli military carried out a series of airstrikes on central Syria late Sunday, reportedly killing more than a dozen people and prompting a furious response from Syrian ally Iran.
“We strongly condemn this criminal attack,” Nasser Kanaani, a spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said during a press conference in Tehran.
Kanaani went on to urge Israel’s weapons suppliers, chiefly the United States and Germany, to “stop supporting and arming it” as its catastrophic assault on the Gaza Strip spills out across the region. Nearly 40 people were wounded in Israel’s strikes on Sunday, according to a Syrian health official, and several are in critical condition.
Initial reports of at least 14 people were killed and others injured this morning in an Israeli bombing in the community of Masyaf in Syria.
A quick reminder, the US still has military bases in Syria. pic.twitter.com/9FtMOwbBJZ
— Good Shepherd Collective (@Shepherds4Good) September 9, 2024
Citing two unnamed regional intelligence sources, Reuters reported early Monday that the Israeli strikes hit a “major military research center for chemical arms production located near Misyaf.”
The facility, according to Reuters, “is believed to house a team of Iranian military experts involved in weapons production.”
Kanaani denied that the facility hit was connected to Iran.
“What official sources from the Syrian government have announced is that there were attacks on some Syrian facilities, including an attack on a research center affiliated with the Ministry of Defense and the Syrian army,” he said.
Civilians were reportedly among those killed and wounded in Sunday’s strikes, which came as the world awaited Iran’s expected military response to Israel’s assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in late July.
Israeli forces have carried out dozens of airstrikes in Syria—including one targeting Iran’s consulate in Damascus—since the Hamas-led October 7 attack, which prompted Israel’s large-scale assault on Gaza.
Al Jazeera reported that Israeli forces continued to pummel the Palestinian enclave on Monday, bombing “al-Amoudi street in the Sabra neighborhood, south of Gaza City.” The outlet noted that “at least 10 people have been killed today in attacks across the Gaza Strip.”
Editor’s note: This article is a two edged sword. On the surface it reports Iran’s physically accurate complaint about an Israeli attack on a Syrian town. On the other, it repeats Israeli claims that there was a “chemical weapons” research facility located there while the Syrian government said there was a “military” research center there. Our investigations, going back to 2011, have indicated that none of the claims of the Syrian government using chemical weapons were true. So, here we have this ugly phantasm raised in a report of a very real (and not uncommon) instance of Israel bombing Syria and killing civilians. This is how the game is played.
Jake Johnson is a staff writer at Common Dreams.
