At least seven Iranians or Iranian-allied militia members were killed in an overnight airstrike against a weapons depot outside of Aleppo, Syria, The Jerusalem Post reported Thursday.
The casualties were reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors developments on the ground in Syria.
This is the Fajr-5C rocket manufacturing workshop in Sheikh Najjar industrial zone located in Northeast of #Aleppo International Airport after was targeted by #Israel Air Force tonight. The secondary explosions can be heard (rockets and ammunition are being exploded). pic.twitter.com/10RKSZ5yLg
— Air War (@TheAirWar) March 27, 2019
Syria attributed the airstrikes to Israel. “The Israeli aggression targeted some positions in Sheikh Najjar industrial zone and a number of enemy missiles were brought down,” a Syrian army statement quoted by the regime’s SANA news service said.
#Syrian air defense systems shot down a number of missiles during #Israeli air attack over the #SheikhNajar region in #Aleppohttps://t.co/XCqFxVgWtq pic.twitter.com/1WaIUJlj6F
— Tasnim News Agency (@Tasnimnews_EN) March 28, 2019
However, Reuters reported that the sites targeted were Iranian arms depots and a military airport operated by the Islamic Republic, according to opposition groups.
Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city, suffered a blackout in the aftermath of the airstrikes.
The city has a strong presence of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and militias under its command, according to military experts cited by Reuters.
A large ammunition depot and a logistics hub belonging to Iranian-backed militias were targets of Wednesday night’s airstrikes, two opposition sources told the news agency.
In September of last year, the IDF said that it had struck over 200 Iranian military sites in Syria over the past year and a half.
In January, as he prepared to step down as the IDF’s chief of staff, Gen. Gadi Eisenkot told The New York Times that Israel had hit “thousands” of Iranian targets in Syria.
Last month, a report in The Daily Beast explained that one of Israel’s goals in Syria was to prevent Hezbollah from upgrading its rockets into precision-guided missiles.
Israeli leaders have said that the Jewish State will enforce its “red lines” in Syria. It will not allow Iran to establish a military presence in Syria, and will prevent Hezbollah from obtaining “game-changing” weapons.
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