TEL AVIV – Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes early Wednesday in eastern Syria, killing dozens of people according to independent war monitors, in one of the deadliest raids on sites used by Iran-backed militias.
The strikes took place in several locations, including in and near the cities of Deir Ezzour, Mayadeen and al-Boukamal on the Syria-Iraq border, according to Syria’s state news agency SANA. The strikes targeted Syrian government positions, arms depots and pro-Iranian militias, according to the Syrian state media and Suhaib Jaber, who runs the Euphrates Post, an independent war monitor.
About 40 members of the forces allied with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were killed in the strike, according to Omar Abu Layla, who leads the Deir Ezzor activist network24.
The Israeli army refused to comment on the strike.
“Israel is determined to prevent the Iranian military from taking root in Syria,” said Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel’s minister of community affairs and a member of the security cabinet. But he declined to comment specifically on the latest strike.