© AFP 2019 / Ahmad Al-Rubaye
Israel has launched several airstrikes on eastern Syria near the Iraqi border,
killing at least eight fighters of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), a key player in the fight against Daesh and other Takfiri groups in the region.
The air raids
struck trucks and weapons depots in Albu Kamal in eastern Syria early Friday, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
The group said "unidentified aircraft" targeted the area, but Lebanon's Al-Mayadeen news outlet said Israel was responsible for the strikes.
SOHR chief Rami Abdurrahman said the airstrikes killed at least eight forces of the PMU, better known by their Arabic name Hashd al-Sha'abi, and wounded several others.
The Israeli regime has a long record for attacking forces fighting Daesh terrorists in Syria. The recent air raids were the latest in a series of attacks that have targeted positions of the Hashd al-Sha'abi forces across the region over the past months.
Last August, Israeli aircraft killed and wounded several PMU forces near the Syrian border.
In July 2019, a drone dropped explosives onto a PMU base near the town of Amerli, in Salahuddin Province, killing at least one resistance fighter and injuring four others.
In June 2018, Hashd al-Sha'abi fighters came under attack in Syria's border town of al-Hari, in the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr, as they were chasing Daesh terrorists out of the area.
Both the Syrian government and Hashd al-Sha'abi declared back then that the attack near the Iraqi-Syrian border had been deliberate and could only have been carried out by either Israel or the United States.
Comment: AP
reports:
Another Iraqi official said those targeted belong to the Imam Ali Brigades, an Iran-backed faction within the PMF. The three Iraqi officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make statements to the media.
Israel has repeatedly struck Iran-linked targets in Syria in recent years and has warned against any permanent Iranian presence on the frontier.
Deir Ezzor 24, an activist collective that reports on news in the border area, said the planes struck trucks carrying weapons as well as depots for ballistic missiles in the area. Omar Abu Laila, a Europe-based activist from Syria's eastern Deir el-Zour area who runs the group, said the attack triggered "a huge explosion" heard in the Syrian-Iraqi border.
The Sound and Picture, another activist collective in the Deir el-Zour area, said "unidentified planes" struck militia targets in Boukamal. There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities.
The weapons were
allegedly on their way to Lebanese Hezbollah.
The U.S. and Israel can't get enough killing the forces who are actually fighting ISIS. They may have their reasons - however mendacious and facile, or simply self-serving - but they really should consider the image this presents.
Seriously, even
ISIS praised the killing of Soleimani. If they keep this up, the Israelis and Americans will be seen as in league with ISIS by an increasing number of the world public.
Comment: AP reports: The weapons were allegedly on their way to Lebanese Hezbollah.
The U.S. and Israel can't get enough killing the forces who are actually fighting ISIS. They may have their reasons - however mendacious and facile, or simply self-serving - but they really should consider the image this presents.
Seriously, even ISIS praised the killing of Soleimani. If they keep this up, the Israelis and Americans will be seen as in league with ISIS by an increasing number of the world public.