ISRAEL carried out air strikes against an airbase in north-eastern Syria on Sunday evening, killing two soldiers and wounding three others, Syrian media reported.

The strike came just days after Israeli missiles allegedly targeted a convoy near the Syria-Iraq border, which reportedly left at least 10 people dead, including a number of Iranian fighters. 

That strike was said to target lorries carrying fuel and possibly weapons from Iran to Lebanon.

Military sources told reporters that the strikes had targeted a runway at the Shayrat Airbase, south of the city of Homs. The sources claimed the airbase had recently been used by Iranian forces.

Syria’s state-run broadcaster Sana, citing a military source, said two soldiers were killed and three were wounded, and unspecified damage was caused to the site that was struck.

Images shared on social media appeared to show a large fireball and prolonged secondary explosions following the attack.

Sana claimed Syrian air defences managed to intercept several of the Israeli missiles in Sunday’s strike. Syria regularly claims to intercept Israeli missiles, though military analysts doubt such assertions.

As a rule, Israel’s military does not comment on specific strikes in Syria, but has admitted to conducting hundreds of sorties against what it says are Iran-backed groups.

The Israeli Defence Forces say they also attack arms shipments believed to be bound for those groups, chief among them Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Additionally, air strikes attributed to Israel have repeatedly targeted Syrian air defence systems.

Israeli strikes have continued in Syrian airspace, which is largely controlled by Russia, even though Tel Aviv’s ties with Moscow have deteriorated in recent months. Israel has found itself at odds with Russia as it has increasingly supported Ukraine while seeking to maintain freedom of movement in Syria’s skies.

Russia has forces stationed near the Shayrat airbase, and sources have told local reporters that they also use the base.

Russia has also reportedly expanded the runway and other facilities in recent years.

The alleged presence of Russian forces on the base raises the prospect that the Israeli attack could also be part of a wider effort to damage the military capability of the Kremlin.

In June, Israeli air strikes put Damascus’s airport out of service for nearly two weeks. 

Israeli attacks on Aleppo airport in early September also forced that facility to shut down.

There was no comment from the IDF on the latest raid into Syria.