Israeli airstrikes in central Syria on Wednesday night claimed the lives of nine soldiers and paramilitaries fighting alongside government forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday.
“At around 23:34, Israel carried out airstrikes against a telecommunications tower and several nearby positions near Palmyra,” a source close to the army was quoted as saying by the Syrian state news agency SANA.
The strikes targeted pro-Iranian positions and a telecommunications tower in the area where the T4 air base is located, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a vast network of sources in the war-torn country.
According to the NGO, four Syrian fighters belonging to pro-Iranian organizations were killed, as was a soldier. The nationality of the other five dead has not yet been determined.
Asked about the blows by the German Agency, a representative of the Israeli army limited himself to giving the standard answer “we do not comment on foreign media reports”.
Last week, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an Israeli raid on positions at the same air base and in the surrounding area killed two foreign pro-Iranian fighters. SANA then reported that six soldiers were injured.
Since the outbreak of armed conflict in Syria in 2011, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes against positions of Syrian government forces and their allies, Iranian and pro-Iranian groups, particularly the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
The Israeli military rarely acknowledges publicly that it is conducting operations in Syria; however, it confirmed earlier this year that it had hit at least 50 targets in the war-torn country last year. Israel has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran, its sworn enemy, to build a bridge over Syrian territory.
General Aharon Khaliva, head of Israel’s military intelligence service, recently said that the Israeli army “will continue to interfere with Iran’s capabilities” in order to “maintain Israel’s power.”
Sources close to Western intelligence services have pointed out that the escalation of Israeli airstrikes on Syria from 2020 is part of an undeclared war that is being waged with the unofficial approval of the United States.
The extremely complex war in Syria, which erupted in March 2011 sparking the crackdown on pro-democracy protests, has since claimed the lives of half a million people and uprooted millions, turning them into internally displaced persons and refugees.
