Israeli strike killed 36 Syrian soldiers near Aleppo: war monitor

DAMASCUS/BEIRUT (AFP/AP) : An Israeli strike on northern Syria’s Aleppo province killed at least 36 Syrian soldiers on Friday, according to a war monitor.

The attack killed at least “36 Syrian soldiers” and targeted an area “near rockets depots belonging to Lebanese group Hezbollah,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.

The Syrian army confirmed that Israeli airstrikes killed and wounded several people and caused material damage.

Syrian state media quoted an unnamed military official as saying that the Israeli strikes coincided with drone attacks by Syrian insurgent groups on civilians targets in Aleppo and its suburbs. It did not give an exact numbers for the casualties.

The Britain-based SOHR, an opposition war monitor, said Hezbollah missile depots targetted in the strikes were in Aleppo’s southern suburb of Jibreen near the Aleppo International Airport. 

The Observatory said explosions were still heard two hours after the strikes.

There was no immediate statement from Israeli officials on the strikes. Israel frequently launches strikes on Iran-linked targets in Syria but rarely acknowledges them.

On Thursday, Syrian state media reported airstrikes near the capital Damascus saying it wounded two civilians.

Hezbollah has had an armed presence in Syria since it joined the country’s conflict fighting alongside government forces.

Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and once its commercial center, has come under such attacks in the past that led to the closure of its international airport. Friday’s strike did not affect the airport.

The strikes have escalated over the past five months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza and ongoing clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanon-Israel border.