SOHR: Drone strike hits convoy of lorries in eastern Syria

A DRONE strike has hit a convoy of lorries in eastern Syria, according to Syrian opposition activists and a pro-government radio station, but no information on casualties was given.

Sunday night’s strike came amid heightening tension between Iran and some of its neighbours.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack on the convoy in the Syrian border region of Boukamal, which is a stronghold of Iran-backed militias.

But the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the drones appear to have been from the US-led coalition, adding that they had targeted six refrigerated lorries. The group said that there had been casualties and ambulances rushed to the area.

Another activist said that the strike had hit an Iran-backed militia convoy. Omar Abu Layla, a Europe-based activist from Deir el-Zour who runs a group monitoring developments, tweeted that there was no immediate word on casualties.

The pro-government Sham FM radio station also reported that six refrigerated lorries had been hit.

In Baghdad, an official with one of the Iran-backed militias also confirmed the strike.

The attack in eastern Syria came hours after bomb-carrying drones targeted a military equipment factory in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, causing some damage.

Last month, Israel’s military chief of staff strongly suggested that Israel was behind a strike on a convoy of lorries in Syria in November, giving a rare glimpse of Israel’s shadow war against Iran and its allies across the region.

Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi, who finished his military service earlier this month, said that Israeli military and intelligence capabilities made it possible to hit specific targets that pose a threat.

Israeli leaders have in the past admitted attacking hundreds of targets in Syria and elsewhere in what they say is a campaign to thwart Iranian attempts to smuggle weapons to proxies such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, or to destroy weapons caches.

These strikes on a country with which Israel is not at war are illegal.

The November strike hit tankers carrying fuel and other lorries carrying weapons for the militias in Syria’s eastern province of Deir el-Zour, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported at the time. It said that at least 14 people had been killed in the attack.

Iran is a leading backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad and has sent thousands of fighters to help the government army during the country’s 11-year civil war.

Both Iran and Mr Assad’s government are also allied with Hezbollah, which has fought alongside Syrian forces in the war.