Israeli strike on Syria kills 3 regime loyalists
Beirut, Lebanon - A war monitor said on Monday that air raids in Syria the previous night, blamed on Israel, killed at least three foreign pro-regime fighters south of the war-torn country’s capital.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday night’s attack hit Syrian regime and Iranian positions south of Damascus.
It said three non-Syrian loyalist fighters were killed by a rocket blast between the suburb of Aqraba and the nearby Sayyida Zeinab neighbourhood.
It did not specify their nationality but said they were likely Iranian.
Syrian state news agency SANA reported the attack just before midnight on Sunday.
It said Syrian air defences fired on ‘hostile missiles’ coming from ‘the Occupied Territories’, referring to Israel.
It said one missile came down in Aqraba, southeast of Damascus.
Israel has not publicly claimed responsibility for the raids.
An Israeli army spokeswoman contacted said Israel does not comment on reports in foreign media.
Since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011, Israel has conducted hundreds of strikes in Syria against Iranian targets and pro-Tehran militias allied with the regime of President Bashar Assad.
An Israeli strike on November 20 killed 21 pro-regime fighters including 16 foreigners, along with two civilians, according to the Observatory.
In July, six Iranians and three pro-regime Syrian fighters were killed in reported Israeli missile strikes in the southern provinces of Daraa and Quneitra, according to the Observatory. A month later, the Israeli army carried out a strike in Aqraba, killing two Hezbollah and one Iranian fighter. The war in Syria has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since it began with anti-government demonstrations brutally crushed by security forces.
Syria regime advances
Regime forces have seized dozens of towns and villages in northwest Syria from terrorists following days of violent clashes, fuelling an exodus of civilians, the war monitor said.
The fresh advances in Idlib came as Russian warplanes continued to pummel the province’s south, killing nine civilians who were trying to escape the flashpoint area on Sunday, the Observatory said.
The ground assault by loyalists of the regime brings them closer to capturing one of the largest urban centres in Syria’s last major opposition bastion.
“This push is an attempt to get closer to Maaret al-Numan,” Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman said.
Residents of the southern Idlib town flooded out of the area, fearing further advances, a correspondent there said.
According to the Observatory, more than 30,000 people had fled the flashpoint area in southern Idlib in recent days. More than 40 civilians were reportedly killed in the past week.
Syrian air defences fired on ‘hostile missiles’
SANA