ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Seven people died Wednesday when a fresh drone strike targeted the warehouse of an Iran-backed militia in the eastern Syria, a war monitor reported, adding that 15 others, including civilians, were injured. The strike in Syria’s eastern Deir ez-Zor province was not immediately attributed to anyone but it occurred in a place where the US and Israel have previously carried out attacks and where pro-Iran militias maintain a significant presence. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) war monitor said that a total of seven people, including “three Syrians, three non-Syrians, and an unidentified man” were killed in the strike, while 15 others were injured. In late January, an Iran-backed commander alongside two of his escorts were killed in a series of drone strikes while the militia leader was investigating a site -also in Deir ez-Zor province- that was the site of a prior attack on Iran-backed forces. The strikes were not claimed by any entity. Such strikes are often attributed to Israel, 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. A global US-led coalition fighting remnants of the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group has also previously conducted strikes around the area, similarly targeting fighters affiliated to Iran. According to statistics from SOHR, 16 Iran-backed Syrian and non-Syrian militiamen were killed by “aerial and ground attacks” in February.
