(Beirut) Twenty-three fighters affiliated with Iran were killed on Saturday in “probably Israeli” airstrikes in eastern Syria, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), which also reported four deaths in other strikes near Aleppo (north).
“Twenty-three fighters affiliated with Iran”, including five Syrians, four members of Lebanese Hezbollah, six Iraqis and eight Iranians were killed in at least nine airstrikes targeting military positions near the border with Iraq, announced the NGO, adding that around twenty people had been injured.
The strikes are “probably Israeli,” OSDH director Rami Abdel Rahmane told AFP, who initially said they could have been carried out by the United States.
Asked about a possible American strike in eastern Syria, an American military official, who requested anonymity, told AFP that his country had “conducted no defensive strike during the night” on Friday. see you Saturday.
These comments come against a backdrop of increasing attacks by pro-Iran groups targeting the American army in Syria and Iraq since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7.
A shipment of weapons from Iraq and an ammunition warehouse were also targeted and large explosions rang out, added the OSDH, based in the United Kingdom, but with a vast network of sources in Syria. .
Other strikes near Aleppo, according to OSDH
The OSDH also announced late Saturday that “Israeli missiles” had “targeted warehouses and bases of pro-Iran groups” in northern Syria, in an area near Aleppo airport, killing four fighters.
At around 5:20 p.m. local time (9:20 a.m. Eastern Time), “the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial attack […] targeting a certain number of points south of the city of Aleppo,” declared a military source cited by the official Sana agency. However, she only reported “material damage”.
Furthermore, during the night from Friday to Saturday, “Israeli ground bombings” killed two fighters from a group affiliated with Lebanese Hezbollah, supported by Tehran, in the province of Qouneitra (south), said the OSDH.
The two men, “of Palestinian origin”, were “members of a group affiliated with the Syrian Resistance for the liberation of the Golan (annexed by Israel, Editor’s note), which works with the Lebanese Hezbollah”, added the Observatory.
The Israeli army announced Saturday morning that it was carrying out strikes in Syria after two rockets fired from that country fell on territory under its control.
Israel, which has intensified its strikes in Syria since October 7, rarely claims them. But he has repeatedly said he will not allow his archenemy Iran to expand its presence in Syria, including through militias or armed groups like Hezbollah.
Iran has supported armed groups in Syria since the start of the conflict in that country in 2011 and is part of the “axis of resistance” to Israel which supports Hamas in the context of the war in Gaza.
For its part, Hezbollah, a Lebanese movement, announced on Saturday that four of its fighters had been killed “on the road to Jerusalem”, a term used by the group to designate its members who have fallen since October 7.
The movement, which exchanges daily fire with Israel on the Israeli-Lebanese border, did not provide further details.
Hezbollah also says it is acting in support of its Hamas ally in Gaza.