A war monitor said that five fighters backed by Iran were slain in a drone strike on Sunday in eastern Syria, close to the Iraqi border. The war monitor added that the identity of the perpetrator was still unknown.
“Five pro-Iranian fighters were killed and others were injured, some severely… after an unknown drone targeted the military vehicle they were in… near the Syrian-Iraqi border,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The strike took place in Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor region, which Israel and the US often bomb and where Iran has substantial influence, according to a British monitor with a network of insider contacts inside Syria.
The Observatory had reported at the time that three pro-Iranian fighters, including at least two Iraqis, had been killed in a midnight air attack in eastern Syria close to the Iraqi border in June.
Israel has launched hundreds of raids against Syrian army sites and fighters backed by Iran, including members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011.
Israel hardly ever responds to specific strikes in Syria.
President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria have received support from Iran-backed organizations, such as the influential Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.
After the Syrian government brutally put down an uprising in 2011, there has been a conflict that has claimed over 500,000 lives, attracted international armies, and radicalized civilians.
