Israeli airstrike kills 42 people in northern Syria: Observer
Israeli airstrikes in northern Syria on Friday killed 36 soldiers and six Hezbollah fighters, war monitors said, marking the latest deadly airstrike against Iranian-backed forces in the country since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. He said it had become.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria since the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, targeting not only military positions but also Iranian-backed targets including Hezbollah, an ally of Damascus and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. It also targets combatants who
Attacks have increased since fighting between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, and Friday's attack was the second in the past 24 hours.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of sources in Syria, said the “Israeli attack” targeted “a rocket base belonging to Lebanese Hezbollah” near Aleppo airport.
The newspaper reported that “42 people, including six members of the Lebanese Hezbollah group, were killed'' and “36 soldiers,'' making it the highest casualty of Syrian troops in an Israeli attack since the start of the Israeli-Hamas war.
“At around 1:45 a.m., Israel's enemies launched an air attack from the direction of Asriya, southeast of Aleppo,” state news agency SANA reported, citing military sources, adding that “civilians and military personnel” were killed and wounded. . .
Speaking to AFP from Jerusalem, the Israeli military said it “does not comment on foreign media reports.”
The Observatory also reported attacks targeting “defense factories” controlled by pro-Iranian groups elsewhere in Aleppo province.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Qanani said the attack “is a violation of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity and a serious threat to regional and international peace and security.”
He called the attack “a blatant and desperate attempt to continue and escalate the crisis in the region.”
– New Lebanese strike –
The attack occurred just hours after an Israeli attack in the Damascus countryside was reported.
Syrian state media reported that “two civilians” were killed and property was damaged in “Israeli air strikes targeting residential buildings” on Thursday.
The Observatory said the target was the Sayyida Zeinab district, a stronghold of pro-Iranian militant groups including Hezbollah in the south of the capital.
Israel's raids on Syria are also aimed at cutting off Hezbollah's supply route to neighboring Lebanon.
The Israel-Hamas war began with an unprecedented attack by Gaza-based Palestinian militants that killed about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, in Israel, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli statistics.
Israel's retaliatory operations have killed at least 32,623 people in the Gaza Strip, the majority of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Since the start of the Gaza conflict, Israel has engaged in near-daily cross-border firefights with Hamas's ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, raising fears of a major regional firestorm.
Military security officials said an Israeli attack on a car in southern Lebanon on Friday killed a Hezbollah official, but the group claimed it was an attack on Israeli positions.
Hezbollah announced the deaths of six fighters on Friday, but did not say where or when they died.
At least 347 people have been killed in cross-border fires in Lebanon since October, mostly Hezbollah fighters, but also at least 68 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people in southern Lebanon and northern Israel, and the military said 10 soldiers and eight civilians were killed.
Hezbollah has been active in Syria since at least 2013, fighting alongside its Damascus ally in the civil war.
Source: guardian.ng