ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An Iranian-backed militia leader was reportedly killed in eastern Syria on Monday in a fresh round of drone strikes while he was investigating the airstrikes on a convoy the previous evening, a local war monitor reported, bringing the total death toll of the strikes to ten. A pro-Iranian commander “and two of his non-Syrian escorts” were killed in a series of drone strikes on Monday while the leader was investigating the site in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province in which Iranian-backed militias were targeted, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said. The airstrikes on Sunday evening destroyed a convoy of six refrigerated trucks that were transporting Iranian ammunition and weapons to Syria from Iraq near the town of Al-Bukamal, where pro-Iran groups maintain a significant presence. A total of ten pro-Iranian fighters were killed in two days of strikes on the Syria-Iraq border, SOHR confirmed. It was not immediately clear who carried out the attacks, although such strikes are often attributed to Israel, who 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 US military is also active in the region, despite tit-for-tat attacks between the US and Iran in Iraq and Syria having simmered down over the past year. The US and Israel on Thursday conducted the largest partnered air, land, and sea military exercise in history, including the participation of nearly 8,000 troops, according to the US Central Command (CENTCOM). The strikes also coincide with a landmark visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the Middle East amid raging Israel-Palestine tensions. There has not been any comment from neither Iraqi nor Syrian officials regarding the incident.
