BEIRUT, Dec  30, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Air strikes in eastern Syria "likely"
launched by Israel killed at least 19 pro-Iran fighters Saturday, a war monitor
said, reporting three more dead in the country's north.

       The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "19 pro-Iranian fighters,
including four Syrians, and six Iraqis, were killed and more than 18 were
wounded" in at least nine air strikes overnight near the Iraqi border.

       It said the raids were "likely carried out by Israel", after earlier
indicating they were "likely American".

       A US military official, requesting anonymity, said the "US did not conduct
any defensive strikes overnight".

       The Observatory said the strikes targeted military positions in Albu Kamal
and its surroundings in Deir Ezzor province, adding that a weapons shipment
from Iraq and an ammunition warehouse were also hit.

       Israel rarely comments on individual strikes targeting Syria, but it has
repeatedly said it will not allow arch-foe Iran, which backs President Bashar
al-Assad's government, to expand its presence there.

       Later Saturday, the Observatory said that "Israeli missiles targeted
warehouses and bases of pro-Iran groups" in northern Syria in an area near the
Aleppo airport, killing three fighters and wounding several others.

       Syrian state media, citing a military source, said that at around 5:20 pm
(1420 GMT), "the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack... targeting a number
of points south of the city of Aleppo", reporting only "material damage".

       During more than a decade of civil war in Syria, Israel has launched
hundreds of air strikes on its territory, primarily targeting Iran-backed
forces including Lebanese Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions.

       But it has intensified attacks since the war between Israel and Hamas began
on October 7, as tensions rise across the Middle East.

       Iranian state media said an Israeli strike on Monday near Damascus killed
Razi Moussavi, a senior commander in the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm
of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
       
       - Strikes in south Syria -
    
       
       Overnight in southern Syria's Quneitra province, near the Israeli-occupied
Golan Heights, "Israeli ground bombardment" killed two fighters from a
Hezbollah-linked group, said the Britain-based Observatory.

       The pair, "of Palestinian origin", were "members of a group affiliated with
the Syrian Resistance to Liberate the Golan, which works with Lebanon's
Hezbollah", said the monitor which relies on sources inside war-torn Syria for
its reports.

       The Israeli army had said early Saturday that it was carrying out strikes
in Syria after two rockets fired from the country fell into territory under its
control.
       The army did not give the precise location where they fell.

       Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement, which like Hamas in the Gaza Strip
is supported by Iran, announced on Saturday the death of four of its fighters
"on the road to Jerusalem" -- a reference to militants killed in hostilities
since October 7.

       It was unclear where they were killed.

       There have been regular cross-border exchanges of fire between Israel and
Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

       The Middle East has also seen a surge in attacks on US forces, which
Washington blames on Tehran-aligned armed groups across the region, since the
start of the Israel-Hamas war.

       The majority have been claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose
formation of Iran-linked armed groups which oppose US support for Israel.