DAMASCUS: At least sixpro-government fighters, including Syrian colors, were killed in Israeli air strikes on Thursday targeting positions held by Iran- backed groups near the capital Damascus, a war examiner reported.
It’s the fourth time this month that Israeli strikes have been reported inside Syria, keeping up a crusade againstpro-Iranian forces supporting the Damascus government in the further than decade-old civil war.
“ Israeli strikes killed six people, including two Syrian colors and four Iran- backed host fighters whose ethnicities remain unknown,” the Syrian Overlook for Human Rights said.
The Britain- grounded examiner, which has an expansive network of sources across the country, said the raids “ targeted positions and arm depots” operated by Iran- backed groups near Damascus field, destroying several armament caches.
The strikes also targeted air defences south of Damascus, said the Overlook, which didn’t unfold on any damage.
Syrian state media said the attack came at around 110 am.
The sanctioned SANA news agency said air defences interdicted utmost of the dumdums but three dogfaces were killed.
The rearmost raids follow Israel’s hail this week of a Syrian city near the truce line on the Golan Heights, and strikes on a Syrian military post on February 17, and onanti-aircraft batteries at the launch of the month.
The Overlook said Israel has carried out raids in Syria at least six times since the launch of the time.
Asked about the rearmost strikes, an Israeli army spokesperson said “ We do n’t comment on reports in foreign media”.
Since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes inside the country, targeting government positions as well as confederated Iran- backed forces and fighters of the Shiite militant movement Hezbollah.
While Israel infrequently comments on individual strikes in Syria, it has conceded mounting hundreds since 2011.
According to the Israeli service, it hit around 50 targets inside Syria in 2020.
Last time, Israel hit Syria roughly 30 times, killing 130 people — five civilians and 125 loyalist fighters, according to Observatory numbers.
In December, it carried out a strike targeting an Iranian arms payload in Latakia — in the heartland of President Bashar al-Assad’s nonage Alawite community — its first on the harborage since the launch of the civil war.
The Israeli service has defended the strikes as a necessary measure to help itsarch-foe Iran from gaining a base on its doorstep.
Israel’s head of military intelligence, Major General Aharon Haliva, has indicted Iran of “ continuing to promote subversion and terror” in the Middle East.
