Alleged Israeli attack kills 6 in eastern Syria, says watchdog

Beirut, Oct 3 (EFE).- An alleged Israeli aerial attack has killed six fighters in the eastern Deir ez-Zor province of Syria, near the border with Iraq, a war monitor said on Tuesday.

However, the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said an Israeli strike on some sites in the border region injured two government soldiers.

“Six members of non-Syrian nationality were killed as a result of an airstrike likely to be Israeli, which targeted three Iranian militia sites (on Monday) evening,” said the United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The rights watchdog said the airstrike likely targeted three Iranian militias in the Al-Hamidah area of Al-Bukamal city, near the Syrian-Iraqi border.

It said the attack wounded four soldiers of the President Bashar al-Assad government in an aerial bombardment on the area of a radar battalion on the top of Harabish mountain in Deir Ezzor countryside.

On the other hand, SANA reported that Israeli forces conducted “an aerial act of aggression” on Syrian armed forces in Deir ez-Zor province on Monday night, injuring two soldiers and causing some material damage. However, no additional details were provided by the news agency.

The observatory said the aerial strike destroyed a radar station belonging to Iranian militia allied with Damascus.

The Iranian-backed militia deployed in the region usually facilitates the movement of militants through illegal routes between Syria and Iraq, the observatory said.

Shortly after the attack, the local activist network DeirAlZur24 reported that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was evacuating one of its busiest militia barracks in the village of Al-Mayadín, located south of Deir ez-Zor.

Israel often launches airstrikes against Syrian territory to target Lebanese and Iranian militia groups that support the Syrian regime, considering their presence in the region a threat to the Israeli state. EFE

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