Beirut – An Israeli airstrike hit a military facility in the central province of Hama during the night, killing two soldiers, the Syrian army said on Thursday.
The airstrike was fired from Lebanese airspace on Wednesday, the army said in a statement carried by the state-run news agency, SANA.
The statement claimed the attack would embolden “terrorists’’ in Syria fighting the government.
“This aggression comes as a desperate attempt to raise the morale of the Daesh (Islamic State) terrorist organisation after the overwhelming victories achieved by the Syrian Arab army against terrorism,” the statement said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, reported that Israeli rockets had targeted military facilities in rural Hama.
Observatory Head, Rami Abdel-Rahman, said that the struck facilities included a pro-government training camp manned by Iranian Revolutionary Guards and their allies in the town of Masyaf west of Hama.
At least two government soldiers were killed and five others injured in the bombardment, he added.
The observatory said the raid also targeted an arms depot of short and medium-range missiles and a scientific research centre in the same area.
The Israeli Army declined comments on the reports.
Yaakov Amidror, a former head of Israel’s National Security Council, said the attack would constitute “another level” of Israeli actions in Syria.
He added in a phone conversation with journalists that Israel was attempting to curb the actions of the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah and Iran in Syria.
“Israel will not allow Hezbollah to use the chaos in Syria to be stronger in the future,” he said.
Iran along with Hezbollah are allied with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a civil war that has ravaged the country, killing hundreds of thousands.
Israel says that Iran is seeking to open a new front against Israel on the Syria-Israel border.
Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, fought a war with Israel in 2006.
Residents in Lebanon’s eastern city of Baalbeck said that they heard on Thursday the sounds of at least four warplanes flying over the area.
Israel rarely confirms the strikes it conducts inside Syria.
