Israeli warplanes targeting Hezbollah assets in and around the northern Syrian city of Aleppo killed at least 36 government troops in the early hours of Friday, according to a U.K.-based human rights group that has people on the ground. File photo by Omar Haj Kadour/UPI |
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March 29 (UPI) -- Israeli airstrikes targeting Hezbollah assets in and around the northern Syrian city of Aleppo in the early hours of Friday killed at least 36 government troops, a human rights group with people on the ground said.
The Syrian Human Rights Observatory said in a news release that the "regime soldiers" were killed and "tens of others" injured, some seriously, after the warplanes struck a Hezbollah weapons warehouse near the city's international airport and air-defense batteries forces in Al-Saferah, 13 miles to the southeast.
The blasts sent fleets of ambulances and fire trucks rushing to the scene.
The England-based SOHR said its activists in the area had also reported hearing blasts in the Kafr Joum area of western Aleppo but the airport escaped any damage, in what the group said was the single deadliest Israeli attack on Syrian territory.
The Syrian Ministry of Defense in Damascus said air strikes and drone attacks by "terrorist organizations" had killed civilians as well as Syrian military personnel, but did not provide details.
Israel, which has been mounting strikes against Hezbollah and Iranian targets in Syria for years to stifle a military build-up by the Lebanon-based group and prevent it from acquiring advanced arms from Tehran, has stepped up its attacks since October 7 when Hezbollah began firing rockets across the border into Israel in support of Hamas.
Iran and Hezbollah are allies of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and operate in Syria with the blessing of Damascus.
Israeli settlements near the country's northern border with Lebanon have been the targets of intermittent Hezbollah rocket fire since the end of South Lebanon War more than two decades ago, but cross-border skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israel are on the rise with Israeli air strikes killing 16 people on Wednesday.
The causality toll, which included Hezbollah fighters and other militants, is the highest of any attack in Lebanon since Hezbollah began its latest military campaign in response to Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.
