BEIRUT: Two Iran-affiliated fighters have been killed in the latest Israeli air strike on Syria, a war monitor said Sunday, with state news agency SANA reporting five Syrian soldiers wounded.

The strike early Sunday near the western Syrian city of Homs was Israel’s third since early Thursday after the capital Damascus was targeted that morning and early Friday.

The Syrian Obser­vatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, said “two pro-Iran fighters whose nationalities are so far unknown were killed” in the strikes targeting military positions of Syrian government forces and pro-Iran groups.

The monitor said explosions rocked Homs and a fire broke out in a research centre.

“An arms depot belonging to Lebanese Hezbollah forces in the military airport of Dabaa, in the southwestern sector of Homs, was destroyed,” Obser­vatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP, adding that the two fighters had been killed in strikes on the arms depot.

State news agency SANA reported, citing a military source, that “the Israeli enemy carried out an air assault... targeting positions in the city of Homs and its province”.

Syria’s air defence intercepted several missiles, but five soldiers were wounded and some material damage was reported, SANA said. Abdel Rahman gave the same number of injured soldiers.

Sepahnews, the website of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said on Sunday Meghdad Mahghani, a military adviser woun­ded in the Friday strike, had “attained the high rank of martyrdom”.

It added that Israel “will pay”.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2023