ANKARA (Reuters) - Iran’s Tasnim news agency said on Monday that reports of Iran’s base in Syria being hit by rockets were baseless and no Iranians had been killed in the attacks on several military bases in the Hama and Aleppo countryside.

“All these reports over attack on an Iranian military base in Syria and the martyrdom of several Iranian military advisers in Syria are baseless,” an unnamed source told Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.</s>After Syria announced that several of its military bases located in the provinces of Hama and Aleppo had come under missile fire, reports by some media outlets suggested that the missile attack had targeted what they called Iranian military bases and that Iranians were killed as a result.

However, an informed source, speaking to Tasnim on Monday, denied such reports.

Earlier, the commander of the Fatemiyoun Corps, an all-Afghan unit involved in the fight against Takfiri terrorist groups in Syria, also denied reports of a missile attack on the corps’ base near Aleppo.

The Syrian army said on Sunday that rockets had struck several military bases in the Hama and Aleppo countryside. In a news flash, state television said the missile attacks took place at 10:30 p.m.

“Syria is being exposed to a new aggression with some military bases in rural Hama and Aleppo hit with enemy rockets,” an army source was quoted as saying without elaborating.

Meanwhile, The Times of Israel said the blasts occurred in a base belonging to the Syrian army’s 47th Brigade that is allegedly used by Iran-backed fighters.

The report said the facility was used as an arms depot, which accounted for the size and intensity of the blast that could be seen from kilometers away and reportedly registered on seismographs in the area.

In another report, Reuters quoted an unnamed intelligence source as saying that it appeared that multiple missile strikes hit several command centers for Iranian-backed forces and there were dozens of injuries and deaths.

Syria has been gripped by civil war since March 2011 with various terrorist groups currently controlling parts of it.

According to a report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.

In the meantime, Iran has remained a close ally of Syria and supports its legitimate government in the face of foreign-backed militancy.</s>BEIRUT - A missile attack in Syria's northern region has killed 26 pro-government fighters, mostly Iranians, a Syria war monitoring group said Monday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the late Sunday night attack appears to have been carried out by Israel and targeted an arms depot for surface-to-surface missiles at a base in northern Syria known as Brigade 47. The Observatory said four Syrians were also among casualties.

It said the death toll could rise as the attack also wounded 60 fighters and there were several others are still missing.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

The attack comes amid rising tensions between Iran and Israel following an airstrike earlier this month on Syria's T4 air base in central province of Homs that killed seven Iranian military personnel. Tehran threatened to retaliate for the T4 attack.

Syria, Iran and Russia blamed Israel for that T4 attack. Israel did not confirm or deny it.

Israel Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in an interview published last Thursday that his country will strike Tehran if attacked by archenemy Iran, escalating an already tense war of words between the two adversaries.

Tehran has sent thousands of Iran-backed fighters to back President Bashar Assad's forces in the country's seven-year civil war.

Iranian state television, citing Syrian media, reported the attack. The semi-official ISNA news agency, citing "local sources and activists," said the strike killed 18 Iranians, including a commander, in a suburb of the central city of Hama.

The missiles targeted buildings and centres which likely include a weapons depot, ISNA reported.

Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency on Monday quoted chief of Fatimayoun Brigade, an Iran-backed Afghan militia in Syria fighting alongside Iranian forces, as saying their base near Aleppo was not targeted during the strikes and they had no casualties. It did not elaborate.

Earlier on Monday, Syrian TV reported a "new aggression," with missiles targeting military outposts in northern Syria. The state-run television reported that the missiles targeted several military positions before midnight Sunday outposts in the Hama and Aleppo countryside.

Lebanon's Al-Akhbar daily, that is considered close to the militant Hezbollah group and the Syrian government said the attack targeted "important arms depots used by the (Syrian) army and Iran's Revolutionary Guards." It said that missiles used in the attack appear to have been bunker buster.

Syria-based opposition media activist Mohamad Rasheed said that base that came under attack is about 10 kilometres outside the city of Hama adding that airstrike led to several explosions in the arms depot. He added that the area is known as the Maarin Mountain or Mountain 47.

Rasheed said that some of the exploding missiles in the arms depot struck parts of Hama adding that residents in areas near the base fled their homes. He said the base has been run by Iranian and Iran-backed fighters from Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.</s>Missile attacks targeted Syrian and Iranian military positions in two Syrian provinces late Sunday, killing at least 26 people, a monitoring group said.

One attack targeted an army base containing artillery belonging to Iranian forces in the southern suburbs of Hama and killed Syrian and Iranian personnel, the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday. The second hit Al Nayrab military airport in Aleppo and no casualties were reported, according to SOHR, which monitors Syria’s civil war through a network of activists on the ground.

Syria acknowledged the attacks on its state-run Sana news agency and posted two pictures showing smoke and fire, without elaborating. Iran’s state-run Tasnim agency, citing an unidentified person, dismissed reports of Iranian deaths.

There was no claim of responsibility, but Israel has repeatedly carried out missile strikes in Syria in the course of its seven-year civil war, and the U.S. earlier this month led a missile attack on Syrian military positions following the suspected use of chemical weapons by President Bashar Al-Assad’s forces.

The Israeli military had no comment on the strike Sunday, in keeping with its customary practice. But Israeli officials have repeatedly said they won’t let Syria become an Iranian base and will intercept weapons shipments bound for the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.</s>Iran denies reports of rockets hitting its military base in Syria, Killing Iranians

Iran’s Tasnim news agency said on Monday that reports of Iran’s base in Syria being hit by rockets were baseless and no Iranians had been killed in the attacks on several military bases in the Hama and Aleppo countryside, Reuters reports.

“All these reports over attack on an Iranian military base in Syria and the martyrdom of several Iranian military advisers in Syria are baseless,” an unnamed source told Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Follow Trend on Telegram. Only most interesting and important news</s>Speaking to Tasnim on Monday, the commander said the corps’ military base near Syria’s northwestern city of Aleppo is safe and none of his forces have been martyred in any attack, as claimed by some media outlets.

The Syrian army said on Sunday that rockets had struck several military bases in the Hama and Aleppo countryside. In a news flash, state television said the missile attacks took place at 10:30 p.m.

“Syria is being exposed to a new aggression with some military bases in rural Hama and Aleppo hit with enemy rockets,” an army source was quoted as saying without elaborating.

Meanwhile, The Times of Israel said the blasts occurred in a base belonging to the Syrian army’s 47th Brigade that is allegedly used by Iran-backed fighters.

The report said the facility was used as an arms depot, which accounted for the size and intensity of the blast that could be seen from kilometers away and reportedly registered on seismographs in the area.

In another report, Reuters quoted an unnamed intelligence source as saying that it appeared that multiple missile strikes hit several command centers for Iranian-backed forces and there were dozens of injuries and deaths.</s>BEIRUT -- A missile attack targeting government outposts in Syria's northern region killed 26 pro-government fighters, mostly Iranians, a Syria war monitoring group said Monday.

Iranian media gave conflicting reports about the overnight incident amid speculation it was carried out by neighbouring Israel.

The attack came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talked to President Donald Trump on the phone. The White House said the two leaders discussed the continuing threats and challenges facing the Middle East, "especially the problems posed by the Iranian regime's destabilizing activities."

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the late Sunday night attack appears to have been carried out by Israel and targeted an arms depot for surface-to-surface missiles at a base in northern Syria known as Brigade 47. The Observatory said four Syrians were also among casualties.

It said the death toll could rise as the attack also wounded 60 fighters and there were several others are still missing.

However, an Iranian semi-official news agency denied reports that Iranian fighters were killed or that Iranian-run bases were hit. The Tasnim news agency quoted an unnamed Iranian informed official in its report but did not elaborate on the denial.

Another semi-official news agency, ISNA, said the strike killed 18 Iranians, including a commander, in a suburb of the central city of Hama. It cited "local sources and activists" for its report.

The missiles targeted buildings and centres which likely include a weapons depot, ISNA reported.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Tehran has sent thousands of Iran-backed fighters to back President Bashar Assad's forces in the country's seven-year civil war.

The attack comes amid soaring tensions between Iran and Israel following an airstrike earlier this month on Syria's T4 air base in central province of Homs that killed seven Iranian military personnel. Tehran has vowed to retaliate for the T4 attack.

Syria, Iran and Russia blamed Israel for that T4 attack. Israel did not confirm or deny it.

Israel Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in an interview published last Thursday that his country will strike Tehran if attacked by archenemy Iran, escalating an already tense war of words between the two adversaries.

Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency on Monday quoted chief of Fatimayoun Brigade, an Iran-backed Afghan militia in Syria fighting alongside Iranian forces, as saying their base near Aleppo was not targeted during the strikes and they had no casualties. It did not elaborate.

Earlier on Monday, Syrian TV reported a "new aggression," with missiles targeting military outposts in northern Syria. The state-run television reported that the missiles targeted several military positions before midnight Sunday outposts in the Hama and Aleppo countryside.

Lebanon's Al-Akhbar daily, that is considered close to the militant Iranian-backed Hezbollah group and the Syrian government said the attack targeted "important arms depots used by the (Syrian) army and Iran's Revolutionary Guards." It said that missiles used in the attack appear to have been bunker buster.

Syria-based opposition media activist Mohamad Rasheed said that base that came under attack is about 10 kilometres (7 miles) outside the city of Hama adding that airstrike led to several explosions in the arms depot. He added that the area is known as the Maarin Mountain or Mountain 47.

Rasheed said that some of the exploding missiles in the arms depot struck parts of Hama adding that residents in areas near the base fled their homes. He said the base has been run by Iranian and Iran-backed fighters from Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.</s>The attack came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talked to U.S. President Donald Trump on the phone. The White House said the two leaders discussed the continuing threats and challenges facing the Middle East, “especially the problems posed by the Iranian regime’s destabilizing activities.”

Iranian media gave conflicting reports about the overnight incident amid speculation that it was carried out by neighbouring Israel.

BEIRUT—A missile attack targeting government outposts in Syria’s northern region killed 26 pro-government fighters, mostly Iranians, a Syria war monitoring group said Monday, amid soaring Mideast tensions between regional arch-enemies Israel and Iran.

A day earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ratcheted up the Trump administration’s rhetoric against Iran and offered warm support to Israel and Saudi Arabia in their standoff with Tehran.

“We remain deeply concerned about Iran’s dangerous escalation of threats to Israel and the region and Iran’s ambition to dominate the Middle East remains,” Pompeo said after a nearly two-hour meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The United States is with Israel in this fight,” he added on his first trip abroad as America’s top diplomat.

Israel has cited Iran’s hostile rhetoric, support for anti-Israel militant groups and development of long-range missiles.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the late Sunday night attack appears to have been carried out by Israel and targeted an arms depot for surface-to-surface missiles at a base in northern Syria known as Brigade 47. The Observatory said four Syrians were also among the casualties.

It said the death toll could rise as the attack also wounded 60 fighters and there were several others still missing.

However, an Iranian semi-official news agency denied reports that Iranian fighters were killed or that Iranian-run bases were hit. The Tasnim news agency quoted an unnamed Iranian informed official in its report but did not elaborate on the denial.

Another semi-official news agency, ISNA, said the strike killed 18 Iranians, including a commander, in a suburb of the central city of Hama. It cited “local sources and activists” for its report.

The missiles targeted buildings and centres which likely include a weapons depot, ISNA reported.

The Syrian government-owned Tishrin newspaper quoted what it called “sources on the ground” as saying that the attack on military positions in Aleppo and Hama provinces consisted of nine ballistic missiles fired from American-British bases in north Jordan. The report could not be independently confirmed.

There was also no immediate comment from Israel, which rarely confirms or denies its attacks in Israel. Israeli media reported that the security cabinet will hold an unscheduled meeting later Monday on the subject of the nuclear deal with Iran.

Trump has set a May 12 deadline to decide whether to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal — something he appears likely to do despite heavy pressure to stay in from European and other parties.

Tehran has sent thousands of Iran-backed fighters to back Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces in the country’s seven-year civil war.

The attack comes amid soaring tensions between Iran and Israel following an airstrike earlier this month on Syria’s T4 airbase in central province of Homs that killed seven Iranian military personnel. Tehran has vowed to retaliate for the T4 attack.

Syria, Iran and Russia blamed Israel for that T4 attack. Israel did not confirm or deny it.

On Monday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the time when Iran’s enemies can “hit and run” is over.

“They know if they enter military conflict with Iran, they will be hit multiple times,” he said in comments during a meeting with workers, according to his website. He did not specifically refer to the latest attack in Syria.

Israel Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in an interview published last Thursday that his country will strike Tehran if attacked by arch-enemy Iran, escalating an already tense war of words between the two adversaries.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency on Monday quoted chief of Fatimayoun Brigade, an Iran-backed Afghan militia in Syria fighting alongside Iranian forces, as saying their base near Aleppo was not targeted during the strikes and they had no casualties. It did not elaborate.

Earlier on Monday, Syrian TV reported a “new aggression,” with missiles targeting military outposts in northern Syria. The state-run television reported that the missiles targeted several military positions before midnight Sunday outposts in the Hama and Aleppo countryside.

Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar daily, that is considered close to the militant Iranian-backed Hezbollah group and the Syrian government said the attack targeted “important arms depots used by the (Syrian) army and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.” It said that missiles used in the attack appear to have been bunker buster.

Syria-based opposition media activist Mohamad Rasheed said that base that came under attack is about 10 kilometres outside the city of Hama, adding that the airstrike led to several explosions in the arms depot. He added that the area is known as the Maarin Mountain or Mountain 47.

Rasheed said that some of the exploding missiles in the arms depot struck parts of Hama, adding that residents in areas near the base fled their homes. He said the base has been run by Iranian and Iran-backed fighters from Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.</s>Military and political sources have told Russia and the United States that Tel Aviv will target Iran directly if Tehran acts on its threat to respond to Israel's alleged Sunday night attack on military bases in Syria, Haaretz reports.

The alleged Israeli attack on Hama and Aleppo on Sunday night is reported to have killed up to two dozen servicemen, most of them Iranians. An Iranian state news agency has denied that the strikes hit an Iranian base, but did vow to respond to an Israeli attack on the T-4 airport in Homs, also believed to have been targeting Iranian forces, earlier this month.

According to Haaretz, Israeli officials have said that if Iran attacks Israel from inside Syria, or does so using its Hezbollah "proxy," Israel will strike back.

Just before Sunday's attack, Israeli defense minister Avigdor Lieberman told reporters that Israel would maintain its freedom to operate inside Syria. Damascus has repeatedly condemned Tel Aviv for violating its airspace.

Syria has been engaged in a foreign-backed civil conflict since 2011. Iranian forces began assisting the country in 2013, providing logistical and technical support, troop training and some combat troops to fight a ragtag collection of rebel militias which include Daesh* and al-Nusra Front*.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to issue a statement Monday evening to discuss "new intelligence information on Iran" related to the nuclear deal.</s>The Latest on developments in Syria (all times local):

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called a special meeting of his Security Cabinet and scheduled a nationally televised statement at 8 p.m. (1700 GMT).

Netanyahu's office says Monday's statement will focus on a "significant development" connected to the international nuclear deal with Iran. It gave no further details.

Netanyahu has long criticized the deal and welcomed the Trump administration's pledge to withdraw next month if it is not improved.

Israeli officials have not commented on Monday's overnight airstrike that killed Iranians inside neighboring Syria. But officials have warned Iran against trying to attack Israeli targets.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has met with a visiting Iranian official who claimed "the project" of the United States and its allies in Syria has been defeated.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, who heads Iran's parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, spoke hours after reports of a missile attack that killed dozens of Iranian fighters in northern Syria on Monday.

Syrian state media reported the meeting of the two and Boroujerdi's remarks. The report did not did not mention Monday's missile attack but referred to the March 14 joint attack by the United States, Britain and France on Syria.

Assad said the international map is being redrawn, adding that the recent "escalation of the aggression against Syria" is a sign that insurgents have failed and this will only make Damascus more determined "to wipe out terrorism."

A missile attack targeting government outposts in Syria's northern region killed 26 pro-government fighters, mostly Iranians, a Syria war monitoring group said Monday, amid soaring Mideast tensions between regional archenemies Israel and Iran.

Iranian media gave conflicting reports about the overnight incident amid speculation that it was carried out by neighboring Israel.

The attack came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talked to President Donald Trump on the phone. The White House said the two leaders discussed the continuing threats and challenges facing the Middle East, "especially the problems posed by the Iranian regime's destabilizing activities."

A day earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ratcheted up the Trump administration's rhetoric against Iran and offered warm support to Israel and Saudi Arabia in their standoff with Tehran.

"We remain deeply concerned about Iran's dangerous escalation of threats to Israel and the region and Iran's ambition to dominate the Middle East remains," Pompeo said after a nearly two-hour meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "The United States is with Israel in this fight," he added on his first trip abroad as America's top diplomat.

Israel has cited Iran's hostile rhetoric, support for anti-Israel militant groups and development of long-range missiles.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the late Sunday night attack appears to have been carried out by Israel and targeted an arms depot for surface-to-surface missiles at a base in northern Syria known as Brigade 47. The Observatory said four Syrians were also among the casualties.

It said the death toll could rise as the attack also wounded 60 fighters and there were several others still missing.

However, an Iranian semi-official news agency denied reports that Iranian fighters were killed or that Iranian-run bases were hit. The Tasnim news agency quoted an unnamed Iranian informed official in its report but did not elaborate on the denial.

Another semi-official news agency, ISNA, said the strike killed 18 Iranians, including a commander, in a suburb of the central city of Hama. It cited "local sources and activists" for its report.

The missiles targeted buildings and centers which likely include a weapons depot, ISNA reported.

The Syrian government-owned Tishrin newspaper quoted what it called "sources on the ground" as saying that the attack on military positions in Aleppo and Hama provinces consisted of nine ballistic missiles fired from American-British bases in north Jordan. The report could not be independently confirmed.

There was also no immediate comment from Israel, which rarely confirms or denies its attacks in Israel. Israeli media reported that the security cabinet will hold an unscheduled meeting later Monday on the subject of the nuclear deal with Iran.

President Donald Trump has set a May 12 deadline to decide whether to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal — something he appears likely to do despite heavy pressure to stay in from European and other parties.

Tehran has sent thousands of Iran-backed fighters to back Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces in the country's seven-year civil war.

The attack comes amid soaring tensions between Iran and Israel following an airstrike earlier this month on Syria's T4 air base in central province of Homs that killed seven Iranian military personnel. Tehran has vowed to retaliate for the T4 attack.

Syria, Iran and Russia blamed Israel for that T4 attack. Israel did not confirm or deny it.

On Monday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the time when Iran's enemies can "hit and run" is over.

"They know if they enter military conflict with Iran, they will be hit multiple times," he said in comments during a meeting with workers, according to his website. He did not specifically refer to the latest attack in Syria.

Israel Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in an interview published last Thursday that his country will strike Tehran if attacked by archenemy Iran, escalating an already tense war of words between the two adversaries.

Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency on Monday quoted chief of Fatimayoun Brigade, an Iran-backed Afghan militia in Syria fighting alongside Iranian forces, as saying their base near Aleppo was not targeted during the strikes and they had no casualties. It did not elaborate.

Earlier on Monday, Syrian TV reported a "new aggression," with missiles targeting military outposts in northern Syria. The state-run television reported that the missiles targeted several military positions before midnight Sunday outposts in the Hama and Aleppo countryside.

Lebanon's Al-Akhbar daily, that is considered close to the militant Iranian-backed Hezbollah group and the Syrian government said the attack targeted "important arms depots used by the (Syrian) army and Iran's Revolutionary Guards." It said that missiles used in the attack appear to have been bunker buster.

Syria-based opposition media activist Mohamad Rasheed said that base that came under attack is about 10 kilometers (7 miles) outside the city of Hama, adding that the airstrike led to several explosions in the arms depot. He added that the area is known as the Maarin Mountain or Mountain 47.

Rasheed said that some of the exploding missiles in the arms depot struck parts of Hama, adding that residents in areas near the base fled their homes. He said the base has been run by Iranian and Iran-backed fighters from Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, and Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Iran's Tasnim News Agency denies reports that yesterday's missile attack in Hama and Aleppo Governorate hit an Iranian military base and says that no Iranian soldiers were killed in the attack.