BEIRUT: Presumed Israeli air strikes on eastern Syria killed 16 Iran-backed fighters Thursday, a war monitor said, hours after Damascus said it intercepted Israeli missiles fired at a central air base.
Those killed were “Iraqi paramilitary fighters loyal to Iran, seven of whom were killed outside the city of Mayadeen,” Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said.
The other nine were killed in strikes south of the city of Albu Kamal, on the Iraqi border further east.
Abdul Rahman said Israel was “likely” responsible for the attack, which if confirmed, would mark the second such strike in less than 24 hours and the third this week.
Late Wednesday, Syrian air defenses intercepted missiles fired by an Israeli warplane at the T4 air base in central Syria, state news agency SANA reported.
“Our air defenses intercepted most of them,” it said, adding the attack caused only material damage.
On Monday, Israeli strikes killed one civilian, three government troops and seven allied foreign fighters, the Observatory said.
Monday’s strikes hit Syrian army positions south of Damascus and facilities used by Iran-backed paramilitaries, including fighters of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, in the southern province of Daraa, the Observatory said.
Israel has carried out hundreds of air and missile strikes on Syria since the civil war broke out in 2011, targeting Iranian and Hezbollah forces as well as government troops.
The Israeli army rarely acknowledges individual strikes, but did confirm on August 3 that it had used fighter jets, attack helicopters and other aircraft to hit military targets in southern Syria.
Presumed Israeli strikes kill 16 pro-Iran fighters in Syria
https://arab.news/bj3wp
Presumed Israeli strikes kill 16 pro-Iran fighters in Syria
- Those killed were “Iraqi paramilitary fighters loyal to Iran”
- Head of Syrian Observatory said Israel was “likely” responsible for the attack
Vessel struck off Oman’s Muscat, UKMTO says
DUBAI: A vessel was struck on Sunday by an unknown projectile 50 nautical miles north of Oman’s capital, Muscat, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said.
The attack resulted in a fire in the vessel’s engine room that has been brought under control, UKMTO added.
It is the second incident the agency reports on Sunday after reporting an incident off Oman’s Kumzar in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian state television said Sunday that an oil tanker was sinking after it was struck while attempting to pass through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
The incident took place as Iran exchanged strikes with the United States and Israel, who launched an attack Saturday that killed the Islamic republic’s supreme leader.
“The fate of the offending oil tanker that was struck while attempting to illegally pass through the Strait of Hormuz is that it is now sinking,” state TV reported, without elaborating.
It carried footage showing heavy black smoke emanating from the burning tanker at sea.
The strait carries a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil and a fifth of all liquified natural gas.
On Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had warned that the vital waterway was unsafe due to US and Israeli attacks and was therefore closed to ships.
