Syria: seven dead in an airstrike against an arms convoy

UPDATE DAY

Seven people were killed in a raid by unidentified planes on Sunday evening on a convoy of trucks loaded with weapons from Iran in eastern Syria, an NGO said on Monday Syrian. 

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), seven truck drivers or people accompanying them, “all non-Syrians”, died in this raid which targeted the convoy in the Boukamal region, in the province of Deir Ezzor, bordering Iraq. 

“The attack targeted six refrigerated trucks” as soon as they entered Syrian territory after crossing the border with Iraq, added this NGO which has a vast network of sources in Syria at war.

The strikes destroyed the trucks, according to the head of the OSDH Rami Abdel Rahmane. “The trucks were loaded with Iranian weapons,” he told AFP.

Iran supports the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad and pro-Iranian militias are deployed in the border region of Iraq.

According to the OSDH, at least two similar convoys are entered Syria this week from Iraq, a country where Iran wields strong influence.

A pro-Syrian government radio confirmed the raid, saying that “unidentified warplanes targeted six trucks refrigerators”, without giving more details.

In November, a raid targeted a convoy of weapons and tank trucks loaded with fuel from pro-Iranian militias in Syria, near the border with Iraq, killing at least 14 people according to the OSDH.

In December, Israeli Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi revealed that his country was behind the raid, adding that the convoy was carrying weapons bound for Lebanon where the pro-Iranian Hezbollah armed movement a dominating influence.

Israel rarely claims the raids it carries out in neighboring Syria and which target pro-Iranian militias in particular, but says it wants to prevent the military establishment of Iran, its pet peeve, on its border.

The US-led international anti-jihadist coalition, with members stationed in Syria and Iraq, has repeatedly admitted carrying out strikes in the border region against pro-Iranian fighters.

The Syrian regime forces and Iranian fighters and groups loyal to them control the area west of the Euphrates River, which divides Deir Ezzor province into two parts. The Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) backed by the anti-jihadist coalition control areas on its eastern shores. Hezbollah fighters are also deployed in the area.

Since 2011, the conflict in Syria, involving several powers and armed groups, has claimed around half a million lives.