(Beirut) Ten fighters affiliated with Iran were killed on Saturday and 30 others injured in “probably American” strikes that targeted sites in eastern Syria, amid a surge in attacks against American personnel in the region, said an NGO.
Iran supports armed groups accused by Washington of being behind an increase in attacks against its forces in the Middle East, against a backdrop of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, a Palestinian Islamist movement supported by “axis of resistance”, which includes Tehran.
“Ten pro-Iran fighters, including three Syrians, were killed and more than 30 injured” in at least nine “probably American” airstrikes targeting military positions in and around Boukamal, in the border province of Deir Ezzor, a statement said. announced the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH).
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 the country at war.
For its part, Lebanese Hezbollah, supported by Tehran, announced on Saturday that four of its fighters were killed “on the road to Jerusalem”, a term used by the group to designate its members who have fallen since October 7.
The party did not provide further details.
These strikes are carried out against a backdrop of increasing attacks by pro-Iran groups targeting its army in Syria and Iraq since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7.
Around 2,500 American troops are in Iraq and 900 in Syria as part of the fight against the Islamic State jihadist group.
In mid-November, eight fighters affiliated with Iran were killed in American strikes which targeted two sites in the same province, according to the OSDH.
At least 105 attacks against American targets in Syria and Iraq have been recorded by Washington since mid-October, according to an American military official who requested anonymity. The majority were claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq group, which denounces American support for Israel.
On Monday, Brigadier General Razi Mousavi, a senior commander of the Quds Force, the foreign operations branch and elite unit of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, was killed in a shooting missile, south of Damascus.
Tehran accused Israel, which did not deny it.