Unidentified drone kills three pro-Iran fighters in east Syria: Monitor

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least three pro-Iran militiamen were killed in an unidentified drone strike in Syria’s eastern Deir ez-Zor province on Wednesday, a war monitor reported. 

“Three members of a pro-Iran militia were killed, including two of non-Syrian nationality, in a targeting by an unknown drone on a military vehicle” in the al-Mayadin desert, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor. 

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attacks, although such strikes are often attributed to the US or Israel, the latter of which has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on Syria, often claiming to target militias affiliated to Iran, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah group which supports the Syrian army. 

The strikes also coincide with regional tensions against the backdrop of the Israel-Gaza war.

US troops in Iraq and Syria have come under target of a series of rocket and drone attacks by pro-Iran militias since October 7, in retaliation to Washington’s support for Israel in its war in the Gazsa Strip. However, the strikes have simmered down recently. 

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of shadow Iraqi militia groups affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks on US interests in the region.