(Beirut) Unidentified planes struck and destroyed a convoy of trucks carrying Iranian weapons in eastern Syria on Sunday as they entered from neighboring Iraq, a Syrian NGO said, citing an unknown number of victims.
“Six refrigerated trucks were the target of strikes carried out by unidentified planes in the border region of Boukamal, after crossing into Syrian territory from Iraq,” the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP. of Man (OSDH), Rami Abdel Rahmane.
The strikes destroyed the trucks and killed or injured those on board, added Abdel Rahman, whose NGO has an extensive network of sources in war-torn Syria. He did not provide a specific assessment.
“The trucks were carrying Iranian weapons,” he added, while Iran, a close ally of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, is helping him militarily in the conflict, in particular through armed factions.
According to the OSDH, at least two similar convoys entered Syria this week from Iraq. They unloaded the weapons to pro-Iranian groups in the town of Al-Mayadine (east).
The towns of Al-Mayadine and Boukamal are located in the province of Deir Ezzor, divided and controlled by different groups and factions.
Iranian regime forces and fighters and groups loyal to them control the area west of the Euphrates River, which divides the province into two parts. The Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) backed by the US-led international anti-jihadist coalition controls areas on its eastern shores.
Iranian and Iraqi forces as well as pro-Iranian groups, including the Lebanese Hezbollah, are deployed in a large area in the east of the province, particularly between Boukamal and Al-Mayadine.
The international coalition has repeatedly acknowledged having carried out strikes in this region against pro-Iranian fighters. Israel, a neighboring country and an enemy of Syria, has carried out several raids against Iranian targets in recent years in Syrian territory.
Last November, a raid targeted a convoy of weapons and fuel from pro-Iranian militias in the Boukamal region, killing at least 14 people according to the OSDH.
The international coalition, whose members are stationed in Syria and Iraq, said it was not behind the raid, while Israel declined to comment.
Since 2011, the conflict in Syria, in which several powers and armed groups are involved, has claimed around half a million lives.