Israeli Strikes Kill 60 Pro-Iranian Fighters In Syria in 3 Months

Israeli airstrikes in Syria have killed at least 60 pro-Iranian paramilitary fighters while sources confirmed that a Hezbollah “cooperator” was killed in the countryside of Deraa on Monday, reports said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that from early May till July 21, it documented a series of attacks against Iranian positions in Syria that left at least 60 casualties from non-Syrian paramilitary fighters including Fatimiyoun, Hezbollah, the Revolutionary Guards and others.

It said the Israel forces carried out those airstrikes against a number of Iranian targets in the south, central and east of Syria.

Israel has acknowledged conducting many raids inside Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011 where it sees Iran’s presence as a strategic threat.

The London-based watchdog said that since early May, airstrikes targeted many pro-Iranian positions in Syria, including in Quneitra, Deraa, Homs, Aleppo, Deir Ezzor, Hama, Damascus and its countryside.

“Those airstrikes killed around 60 Iranian paramilitaries and destroyed a large number of arms and ammunition depots,” it said.

The Observatory has also documented the death of a “collaborator” for Lebanese Hezbollah, after being shot dead inside his home in the town of Al-Harak in the eastern countryside on Monday.

SOHR sources said earlier that unidentified gunmen stormed the house of a former faction opposition commander in Al-Sanamin town in Daraa countryside, opening fire on those in the house, killing five fighters and former commanders, and injuring others.

It also documented the death of three regime forces and the injury of five others, as an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded in a vehicle for the 9th Division, north of the city of Nawa in Daraa countryside.

This brings the number of attacks and assassination attempts in various forms and methods by detonating IEDs, mines, booby-trapped vehicles and shootings from past June to date, to more than 590 attacks, according to the Observatory.

A fire following an Israeli helicopter attack on a Syrian observation post next to the village of Majdal Shams ( EPA )