BFF-23 Strikes blamed on Israel killed 9 pro-regime fighters in Syria: monitor

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Strikes blamed on Israel killed 9 pro-regime fighters in Syria: monitor

BEIRUT, July 16, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – At least nine pro-regime fighters died
in an overnight strike in northern Syria blamed on Israel, a monitor said
Monday.

Syrian state media had accused Israel of bombing a military position in
Aleppo province late Sunday, in what would be a rare Israeli attack so far
north in the war-ravaged country.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said
that those killed included at least six Syrians and that Iranian fighters
were also stationed at the base.

State news agency SANA on Sunday reported a missile strike near a strategic
air base but said there were no casualties.

“The Zionist enemy… targeted with its missiles one of our military
positions north of the Neirab military airport, but the damage was only
material,” it said, citing a military source.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which very rarely
confirms strikes on targets in Syria.

Israel has repeatedly warned it will not tolerate an entrenched presence of
its archfoe Iran in the neighbouring country.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside the country,
said it had recorded a wave of blasts around Neirab on Sunday night.

It said that a suspected Israeli missile strike had targeted “positions
held by Syria’s regime and its allies at the Neirab airport” and its
surroundings.

Suspected Israeli air strikes have hit Syrian army positions near Damascus
and in the central provinces of Homs and Hama in the past but they rarely
occur as far north as Aleppo.

Tehran has dispatched military advisors to bolster Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad’s efforts to fight back a seven-year uprising against his rule.

BSS/AFP/MR/ 1246 hrs