Drones struck a convoy of trucks in eastern Syria on Sunday night, shortly after it entered the country from Iraq, Syrian opposition activists and a pro-government radio station said. There is no information about the victims.
The attack comes amid tensions between Iran and its rivals in the region.
It was not clear without delay who was the attack on the convoy in the Syrian border region of Boukamal, which is a stronghold of Iranian-backed militias.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war watchdog, said the drones gave the impression of belonging to the U. S. -led coalition, adding that they targeted six refrigerated trucks. The organization said there were casualties and ambulances arrived in the area. .
Another activist said the attack hit a convoy of trucks of Iranian-backed defense forces. Omar Abu Layla, a Europe-based activist from Deir el-Zour who heads an organization that monitors events, tweeted that there was no immediate word on the victims.
Pro-government radio station Sham FM reported that six refrigerated trucks were hit.
In Baghdad, an official from an Iranian-backed defense force showed there was an attack claiming it had targeted a truck. He said nothing about the victims.
The attack in eastern Syria came hours after bombed drones struck an Iranian defense factory in the central city of Isfahan, causing damage to the plant.
Last month, the IDF staff leader strongly warned that Israel was an attack on a truck convoy in Syria in November, giving a rare glimpse into Israel’s shadow war against Iran and its proxies in the region.
Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, who finished his military service earlier this month, said Israel’s military and intelligence functions made it possible to hit specific targets that pose a threat.
In the past, Israeli leaders have declared many targets in Syria and in what they say is a crusade to thwart Iranian attempts to smuggle weapons to proxies such as the Lebanese militant organization Hezbollah or destroy weapons caches.
The November attack hit tankers with fuel and other trucks with weapons for militias in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, the Observatory reported at the time. He said at least 14 people, mostly militants, were killed in the attack.
The attack, along the border with Iraq, targeted Iranian-backed militants, Syrian opposition activists said at the time. Some of those killed in the attack were Iranian nationals, according to two paramilitary officials in Iraq.
At the time, Israel declined to comment on the attack.
Iran is one of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s main backers and has sent thousands of Iranian-backed fighters to help Syrian troops in the country’s 11-year civil war. Iran and Assad’s government are also allied with Hezbollah, which fought alongside Assad’s forces in the war.
Israel regards Iran as its enemy and has warned that it opposes what it sees as its hostile activities in the region.
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Abdul-Zahra reported from Baghdad.
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