Six pro-Iran fighters reported killed in Israeli strikes in Syria

A war monitor said at least six pro-Iran fighters were killed Monday in Israeli strikes in Syria near the Lebanese border, in an area where Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah terror group holds sway.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “Israeli strikes targeted two positions of pro-Iran groups in the Homs region,” including “a Hezbollah site in the Qusair area” near the border where “six Iran-backed fighters were killed.”

It did not specify their nationalities.

The Observatory, which is based in the UK and whose sources of funding are unclear, has been accused of exaggerating the effectiveness of Israeli strikes in the past.

A Hezbollah source told AFP that at least one fighter from the group was killed in Israeli strikes in the Qusayr area.

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence there.

On Saturday, the Observatory said an Israeli drone strike near the Lebanese border targeted a vehicle carrying “a Hezbollah commander and his companion,” without reporting casualties.

Hezbollah did not announce any deaths among its ranks on Saturday.

On May 9, Israeli strikes on Syria targeted facilities belonging to Iraq’s Al-Nujaba armed movement, the Observatory and the pro-Iran group said, with Damascus saying an unidentified building was attacked.

The Israeli military has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since the outbreak of the civil war there in 2011, mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters including from Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

But the strikes increased after Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip began on October 7, when the terror group launched an unprecedented attack against Israel, killing 1,200 people and seizing 252 hostages, mostly civilians.

Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the Israel-Lebanon border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza.

So far, the skirmishes on the border have resulted in 10 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 14 IDF soldiers and reservists.

Hezbollah has named 305 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria.