BEIRUT: Israeli planes targeted military positions in Syria on Tuesday, but Syrian air defences confronted and downed some of the rockets, state news agency SANA.
Citing a military source SANA said that Israeli aircraft had targeted "our military positions in the provinces of Tartous and Hama".
"The enemy missiles were dealt with and some of them were shot down," SANA said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said several explosions had been heard in the areas around Masyaf and Wadi al-Uyoun near Hama city, areas where there are Iranian military facilities.
The Observatory's head Rami Abderahman said the attack had also targeted around the coastal city of Baniyas for the first time, with two rockets hitting around one kilometre from an oil refinery.
An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.
Syrian state television said air defences downed five rockets.
SANA said the planes had come at a low altitude from west of neighbouring Lebanon's coastal capital Beirut.
Reuters journalists in Beirut heard unusually loud aircraft sounds shortly before the strikes were reported in Syrian media.
Lebanon's al-Mayadeen news said Israeli fighter planes released countermeasures against anti-aircraft fire "and withdrew towards the sea at the same time as the sounds of explosions were heard in Hama countryside."
Syrian air defenses down several rockets fired by Israel
Syrian air defenses down several rockets fired by Israel
- SANA said that Israeli aircraft had targeted "our military positions in the provinces of Tartous and Hama"
- The Syrian Observatory said several explosions had been heard in the areas where there are Iranian military facilities
Algeria inaugurates strategic railway to giant Sahara mine
- The mine is expected to produce 4 million tons per year during the initial phase, with production projected to triple to 12 million tons per year by 2030, according to estimates by the state-owned Feraal Group, which manages the site
- The project is financed by the Algerian state and partly built by a Chinese consortium
ALGEIRS: Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Sunday inaugurated a nearly 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) desert railway to transport iron ore from a giant mine, a project he called one of the biggest in the country’s history.
The line will bring iron ore from the Gara Djebilet deposit in the south to the city of Bechar located 950 kilometers north, to be taken to a steel production plant near Oran further north.
The project is financed by the Algerian state and partly built by a Chinese consortium.
During the inauguration, Tebboune described it as “one of the largest strategic projects in the history of independent Algeria.”
This project aims to increase Algeria’s iron ore extraction capacity, as the country aspires to become one of Africa’s leading steel producers.
The iron ore deposit is also seen as a key driver of Algeria’s economic diversification as it seeks to reduce its reliance on hydrocarbons, according to experts.
President Tebboune attended an inauguration ceremony in Bechar, welcoming the first passenger train from Tindouf in southern Algeria and sending toward the north a first charge of iron ore, according to footage broadcast on national television.
The mine is expected to produce 4 million tons per year during the initial phase, with production projected to triple to 12 million tons per year by 2030, according to estimates by the state-owned Feraal Group, which manages the site.
It is then expected to reach 50 million tons per year in the long term, it said.
The start of operations at the mine will allow Algeria to drastically reduce its iron ore imports and save $1.2 billion per year, according to Algerian media.
