Six pro-Iran fighters dead in Israeli strikes on Syria: Monitor

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least six pro-Iran fighters were killed Monday in Israeli airstrikes in Syria near the Lebanese border, a war monitor reported.

“Six were killed in Israeli strikes on a base of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia in Qusayr on the Syrian-Lebanese border,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britain-based war monitor. 

The dead were all “of non-Syrian nationality,” according to the monitor. An unknown amount of Hezbollah members were also injured.  

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on regime-controlled areas of Syria throughout its nearly 13-year civil war, often claiming to target pro-Iran militias such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah group that supports the Syrian army. 

The strikes have increased since October 7, when Palestinian Hamas militants launched an unprecedented, large-scale attack on Israeli territory that prompted significant retaliation. 

While it rarely comments on strikes attributed to it in Syria, Israel has repeatedly warned that it would not tolerate its arch-rival Iran gaining a foothold there. 

Israel has intensified its strikes on Syria since October 7. It has attacked Syrian territory at least 40 times since the start of the year, killing at least 137 people and wounding over 57 others, according to SOHR.