The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Blast rocks Syria region hosting Iran-backed fighters

The Observatory, a war monitor based in the United Kingdom, said the source of explosions was unclear

An explosion rocked an area in northern Syria Saturday near a base where pro-regime Iranian fighters and allied Shiite militias have been stationed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“A powerful explosion went off late Saturday in an area of southern Aleppo province,” the Britain-based monitoring group said.

The origin of the blast was not immediately clear and could have been caused by an air strike or an incident at an ammunition depot, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The war monitor’s head, Rami Abdel Rahman, said the area was known to host Iranian forces deployed in Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad’s regime as well as allied Afghan fighters from the Fatemiyoun Brigade.

Arabic media reports said locals heard the sounds of aircraft overhead, but media close to the Syrian regime and Hezbollah denied reports of an “Israeli raid.”

The Observatory, a war monitor based in the United Kingdom, said the source of explosions was unclear.

A tweet posted by an account that publishes statements from Hezbollah’s military wing said that “rumors” of an Israeli air strike served only to “raise the morale of the terrorists after the disappointment they suffered as a result of the failure of the tripartite aggression against Syria.”

Initial reports said the explosions were heard at Jabal Azan, a small Iranian base south of Aleppo.

Israeli officials have repeatedly said they will act to prevent Iran’s growing military presence in Syria and the region remains on edge after US-led air strikes targeting the Syrian regime were unleashed in the early hours of Saturday.

The US, France and the United Kingdom carried out the strikes after blaming the Assad regime for a chemical attack in Douma that killed more than 30 people.

Western powers carried out their biggest attack on Assad’s regime before dawn on Saturday with strikes on targets they said were linked to Syria’s chemical weapons program.

The Pentagon subsequently said no further strikes were planned as part of an operation launched a week after a suspected chemical attack on the holdout rebel town of Douma killed dozens of people.

Israel, which was not involved in Saturday’s unprecedented wave of missile strikes but expressed full support, has unilaterally launched air raids on targets inside Syria on several occasions.

Source: i24NEWS – Blast rocks Syria region hosting Iran-backed fighters