*Israeli air strikes on east Syria killed 57 regime forces and alliedIran-backed fighters, in the deadliest such strikes since the start of theconflict, a war monitoring group said Wednesday.*
The overnight raids against arms depots and military positions killed atleast 14 Syrian regime forces, 16 Iraqi militia fighters and 11 Afghanmembers of the pro-Iran Fatimid Brigade, said the Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights.
The nationality of the remaining 16 who lost their lives in the 18 strikeswas not immediately clear.
“This is the largest death toll from Israeli raids in Syria,” Observatoryhead Rami Abdul Rahman told AFP.
The official Syrian news agency SANA said “the Israeli enemy carried out anaerial assault on the town of Deir Ezzor and the Albu Kamal region”, onlyadding that “the results of the aggression are currently being verified”.
Contacted by AFP, an Israeli army spokesperson declined to comment.
Days before the strikes, the Fatimid Brigade transported a consignment ofIranian-manufactured weapons to eastern Syria from neighbouring Iraq, saidthe Observatory, which is based in the United Kingdom.
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They were stored in the region targeted overnight, it added.
In June 2018, strikes on the same region killed at least 55 pro-governmentfighters, including Iraqis as well as Syrians, according to the monitoringgroup, which relies on a network of sources on the ground.
The latest raids came hours after separate strikes near the Iraqi borderkilled at least 12 Iran-backed militia fighters on Tuesday.
The Observatory said it could not identify the warplanes responsible forthe earlier strikes.
