The Israeli military carried out an airstrike in an area of ​​Syria near the Lebanese border on the first day of five days of mourning in the country over the unexpected deaths of Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Amir Abdullahian. At least six Lebanese pro-Iranian fighters were killed in the Israeli attack on Syria on Monday.
The area of ​​Syria that Israel has attacked is home to Hezbollah, the powerful Iranian-backed Lebanese group. “Israel has targeted two positions of the pro-Iranian group in Syria’s Homs region,” the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Hezbollah also has a base in the Qusayr region of Syria, near the border with Lebanon. The Israeli attack killed at least six Iranian-backed fighters.

However, the Syrian Observatory did not specify which country the victims of the Israeli attack belonged to. A Hezbollah source told the French news agency AFP that at least one of its fighters was among those killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Qusayr area.

Israel has not been seen to comment on isolated strikes carried out in Syria at different times. However, they have repeatedly said that Israel will not allow Iran to increase its presence in Syria.
Earlier, last Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Israel attacked a vehicle targeting a Hezbollah commander and his companion near the border with Lebanon. However, they did not give any information about whether there were any casualties in this attack. Hezbollah also did not announce whether any of its fighters were killed in Saturday’s attack.

Before that, on May 9, Israel carried out airstrikes on the military facilities of the Iraqi armed group al-Nujaba in Syria. On that day, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that an unidentified building in Damascus, the capital of Syria, was attacked. Since the start of the civil war in Syria in 2011, the Israeli military has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in the country. Israel has targeted the Syrian military, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and other Iran-backed armed groups.

On October 7, hundreds of Hamas, the ruling group of the besieged Gaza Strip of Palestine, entered Israel and killed more than 1,200 people and captured 252 people and kept them hostage in Gaza. Israel stepped up attacks on Iran-backed groups in the region after Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza began on the same day.
Iran’s President Ibrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Amir Abdullahian and some senior officials of the country’s government participated in the opening ceremony of the Kiz Kalasi Dam, which was jointly financed with neighboring Azerbaijan. Later, the helicopter carrying the president and the foreign minister crashed in the mountainous area of ​​Dijamar in the Barzakan region while en route to inaugurate another project in the Iranian city of Tabriz.

After several hours of long search operation, the wreckage of the crashed helicopter was identified in the area between Uzi and Pir villages of Dijamar on Monday. From there, the officials of the Iranian rescue team recovered the bodies of 9 people including President Ibrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Amir Abdullahian. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has declared 5 days of state mourning over the unexpected death of President Ibrahim Raisi.