By AP
Unknown warplanes attacked Iran-backed fighters in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border, killing several of the Iraqi militiamen, Syrian opposition activists said Sunday.
The strikes late Saturday targeted a base near the border town of Boukamal, killing seven fighters, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor.
Omar Abu Laila, a Europe-based activist from Syria’s eastern Deir el-Zour province, confirmed that a strike hit Iran-backed Iraqi fighters in the area, but had no exact word on casualties. The strikes came days after reinforcements were brought into the area from Iraq, the Observatory and Abu Laila said.
Abu Laila, who runs Deir Ezzor 24, an activist collective that reports on news in the border area, said Israel was most likely behind the attack, but gave no evidence.
Israel rarely comments on such reports, although it has acknowledged carrying out airstrikes inside Syria on numerous occasions over the course of Syria’s nine-year conflict, saying it was going after Iranian military targets in the country.
There have recently been several reports of suspected Israeli strikes inside Syria, including one on May 4 that left 14 Iranian-backed fighters dead, according to the Observatory.
Seven Iranian-backed militants were killed after unidentified aircraft attacked a site belonging to Iranian forces and Iran-backed militias near Al-Bukamal in the Deir Ezzor area near the Syria-Iraq border on Saturday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The strikes, which destroyed a structure inside the base, came just days after Iranian militias sent reinforcements to the site. The death toll is expected to rise as a number of people were also reported wounded.
Local media reported two large explosions in Aleppo early on Saturday morning, with some outlets claiming that an alleged Israeli airstrike had targeted Iranian sites in the city. Syrian state media later denied that the explosions had been caused by an airstrike.
The SANA state news agency reported early Saturday morning that an explosion had been heard in Aleppo, without providing further details.
A correspondent for the Step News Agency reported that the explosions were believed to have been caused by a strike on Iranian sites in the city and that four bodies had been brought from the scene of the explosion to a hospital in Aleppo, but it was unknown whether the casualties belonged to the Syrian military or Iranian militias.
The reports indicated that the airstrikes targeted the Ramouse suburb near a military school. The opposition-affiliated Halab Today TV also reported on the alleged airstrikes, stressing that no official source provided information on the cause or location of the explosion.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Saturday that while the source of the explosion was unknown, unidentified aircraft were said to have been over the area when the explosion occurred. The SOHR also reported that the explosion occurred in the Ramouse area.
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