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Attacks have escalated amid continuing war in Gaza and clashes with Hezbollah across Israel-Lebanon border.
Published On 29 Mar 2024
Israeli air strikes on Syria’s northern province of Aleppo have killed at least 38 people, including soldiers and civilians.
The fatalities included five members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, security sources told the Reuters news agency.
The attacks at about 1:45am on Friday (22:45 GMT on Thursday) targeted several areas in Aleppo’s countryside, Syria’s Ministry of Defence said. It did not provide casualty figures, only saying that a number of civilians and military personnel were killed and property was damaged after Israel and unnamed armed groups carried out the strikes.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in posts on X that the Israeli strikes hit a weapons depot near Aleppo International Airport, resulting in a series of large explosions.
At least 36 Syrian soldiers were killed, the opposition war monitor said, adding that Hezbollah weapons depots were located in the area.
The Israeli military has not confirmed the attacks.
Israel has for years carried out strikes in Syria, where Iranian-aligned groups, including Hezbollah, hold sway in eastern, southern and northwestern areas of the country, as well as the suburbs around the capital, Damascus.
Its attacks have escalated since the start of the current war in Gaza in October and it has also struck Syrian army air defences and some Syrian forces.
Several members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have also been targeted in Syria, where Tehran’s influence has grown since it backed President Bashar al-Assad in the war that erupted in 2011.
Israel and Hezbollah have been trading near daily fire across their border since the war erupted in Gaza, the biggest escalation since they fought a month-long conflict in 2006.
