Israel has struck Syrian army locations many times in the course of the conflict, hitting convoys and bases of Iranian-backed militias that fight alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces. An intelligence source based in the region told Reuters he did not rule out an Israeli strike on the base.Israel has previously said Syria had allowed Iran to set up a complex at the base to supply its ally, the Lebanese militant Shi'ite group Hezbollah, with weapons.The Israeli military last February accused Iranian-backed militias of operating at the base, from where it said an Iranian drone, that was shot down over northern Israel, had been launched.Israel has long said Iran was expanding its influence in a belt of territory that stretches from the Iraqi border to the Lebanese border, where Israel says Iran supplies Hezbollah with arms.Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed militias have a large military presence in Syria and are well entrenched in central and eastern areas near the Iraqi border.US President Donald Trump said earlier on Sunday there would be a “big price to pay” after medical aid groups reported dozens of civilians, including many children and women, were killed by poison gas in a besieged rebel-held town.The United States launched a cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base a year ago in response to the killing of dozens of civilians in a sarin gas attack in an opposition-held town in northwest Syria. The gas attack was blamed on Assad.The US missile strike was against a Syrian air base which Washington said was used to launch the strike.French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to Trump by telephone and the two agreed that they would work together to establish clear responsibility for what Macron's office said they had agreed was a confirmed chemical attack.Macron said in February “France will strike” in the event of lethal chemical weapon attack on civilians by government forces in Syria.The Syrian state denied government forces had launched any chemical attack. Russia, Assad’s most powerful ally, called the reports fake.Syrian officials claim Israel carried out attacks on T4 military air base near Homs earlier tonight. IDF spox: we have no comment on foreign media reports. pic.twitter.com/p7FLSRxU9W
— Moav Vardi (@MoavVardi) April 9, 2018