2nd Israeli airstrikes hit Syrian airbase

DAMASCUS, Syria - Israel launched a second round of strikes against Syria in 24 hours on Sunday, Syria state media reported.

Syria accused Israel of targeting an airbase in Homs province, reportedly killing five people, just hours after carrying out retaliatory attacks on military and intelligence posts south of Damascus, killing 10.

"Our air defenses thwarted an Israeli aggression and destroyed two of the rockets that targeted the T-4 air base," a military source told state news agency SANA on Sunday evening.

The remaining rockets "killed one soldier, wounded two others, and damaged an arms warehouse," the source added.

Observers reported five killed, including one Syrian soldier, adding that a rocket warehouse was destroyed.

Hours earlier, Israel said it had carried out strikes in the province of Quneitra, which includes the Golan Heights, most of which is occupied and annexed by Israel.

Israel said the attack was in response to rare rocket fire from its neighbor on late on Saturday.

The Syrian government has repeatedly charged that Israel supports the terror groups in Syria and its repeated strikes are nothing but a way to lift the rebels' morale, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Two rockets were fired from Syria at Mount Hermon in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and one had been "located within Israeli territory", the Israeli Army said.

Meanwhile, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria, most of them against what it says are Iranian and Hezbollah targets.

Israel says it is determined to prevent its arch foe Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, where Teheran backs President Bashar al-Assad in the country's eight-year civil conflict which has killed more than 370,000 people.

The Jewish state insists that it has the right to continue to target positions in Syria held by Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah out of self-defense.

"We won't tolerate fire at our territory and will respond forcefully to any aggression against us," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, after the first strikes.

AFP - Xinhua