Ten killed as air strikes hit convoy of Iran-backed groups in Syria. Ten people have been killed by air strikes that hit a convoy of trucks carrying weapons into eastern Syria from Iraq, according to an activist group.
The strikes, which no country has claimed, killed seven “truck drivers and their assistants, all of them non-Syrians” on Sunday evening, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The UK-based group, which monitors the Syrian war, said they were “killed as a result of unidentified aircraft targeting a convoy of Iran-backed groups, last night”.
The strikes reportedly destroyed a convoy of six refrigerated trucks transporting Iranian weapons in the Albu Kamal border region.
Although no one has claimed the attack so far, Israel has carried out hundreds of air and missile strikes against Iran-backed and government forces in Syria, where the US military is also active.
Tehran has long been a major backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has supported his government through weaponry and with armed organisations from Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Activist Omar Abu Layla, who heads the Deir Ezzor 24 media outlet, told AFP on that Sunday’s strikes had also hit the headquarters of an Iran-backed group.
“There was heavy damage in the area that was struck,” he said.
A pro-Syrian government radio station also reported Sunday that “unidentified war planes targeted, in a number of raids, six refrigerated trucks.”
The attack comes shortly after Israel reportedly carried out a drone attack against a defence facility in the Iranian city of Isfahan.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the strike was the first to be carried out by Israel since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power last month.
Israel has long said it is willing to strike Iranian targets if diplomacy fails to curb Tehran’s nuclear or missile programmes, but it has a policy of withholding comment on specific incidents.
Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said no US military forces were involved in strikes on Iran, but declined to comment further.
