Syria war monitor says 4 fighters dead in Israeli attack on Palmyra

By : AFP

Date: 20 November 2024 2:50pm WAT

(FILES) In this file photo taken on March 16, 2017 smoke billows following reported air strikes on a rebel-held area in the southern city of Daraa. - Thirteen combatants and three civilians were killed on July 29, 2021 in Syria's southern province of Daraa during the fiercest clashes there since the area came under regime control, a war monitor said. Russian-backed Syrian army and allied forces recaptured Daraa from rebels in 2018, a symbolic blow to the anti-government uprising born there in 2011. (Photo by MOHAMAD ABAZEED / AFP)

A war monitor said Israeli strikes on central Syria’s Palmyra on Wednesday killed four pro-Iran fighters, while Syrian state media reported an unspecified number of wounded in the attack.

“Four non-Syrian fighters from pro-Iran groups were killed and six others including civilians were wounded in a provisional toll of the Israeli strikes” on Palmyra, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The strikes targeted “a warehouse in the industrial area and a restaurant and buildings near the ancient city of Palmyra”, the Britain-based Observatory added.

State news agency SANA said an “Israeli attack… targeted residential buildings and the industrial area” of the city, renowned for its ancient ruins.

State television reported unspecified “wounded due to the Israeli attack that targeted the city of Palmyra”.

Since the civil war erupted in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria, mainly targeting the army and Iran-backed armed groups, including Hezbollah.

The Israeli military has intensified its strikes since almost a year of hostilities with Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon escalated into all-out war in late September.

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