On Sunday, a drone strike in eastern Syria, close to the Iraqi border, resulted in the death of five Iran-backed fighters, according to a war monitor. The identity of the attackers remains unclear. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the drone attack targeted a military vehicle, causing fatalities and injuries, some of them severe, among pro-Iranian fighters near the Syrian-Iraqi border.
The incident took place in Deir Ezzor province, an area where Iran has substantial influence and which frequently faces attacks from Israel and the United States, as noted by the Britain-based monitor with sources inside Syria. In a similar incident in June, three pro-Iran fighters, including at least two Iraqis, were killed in an overnight air strike near the Iraqi border.
Since the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel has conducted numerous strikes, primarily against army positions and Iran-backed fighters, including those from Lebanon's Hezbollah group. Israel seldom acknowledges specific strikes in Syria. Iran-backed groups, such as Lebanon's influential Hezbollah, have supported President Bashar Al Assad's forces throughout the Syrian civil war. The conflict, sparked by the Syrian government's harsh crackdown on a 2011 uprising, has claimed over half a million lives and involved foreign armies and militants.
