Four people were killed in a drone attack in eastern Syria on Wednesday, in an area held by Iranian forces and an allied group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) reported.
The Observatory, which is based in the UK and has an extensive network of sources in Syria, could not immediately clarify who was behind the attack.
“Four people were killed and eight injured in a drone strike carried out near a weapons factory belonging to pro-Iranian groups and near a truck loaded with weapons,” in Deir Ezzor, the source said. AFP Rami Abdel Rahmane, director of the OSDH.
For its part, the official Syrian agency Sana reported that “several citizens were killed or injured in the explosion of an anti-personnel mine”.
The OSDH indicated shortly after that the strike had targeted an area of the city, theoretically under Syrian government control, which houses the residences of leaders of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and of Lebanese Hezbollah members who fight alongside the Syrian regime.
The Deir Ezzor region, where Iranian groups or allies of Tehran are strongly established, is an important crossing point for fighters, goods and weapons coming from neighboring Iraq.
In January, eleven people were killed in this region during a series of airstrikes against pro-Iranian militias, two of which targeted a convoy carrying weapons, according to the OSDH.
In the past, Israel and the international anti-jihadist coalition have targeted pro-Iranian militias in this region.
Israel rarely claims the raids it leads in Syria, especially those targeting pro-Iranian militias, but says it wants to prevent the military establishment of Iran, its pet peeve, on its border.
In recent years, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria. The latest, attributed to the Jewish state by Syria, dated Tuesday, when a raid was carried out against the airport of Aleppo, in the north of the country. The OSDH then reported three deaths, including a Syrian officer.