Israeli strikes kill 23 Syrian regime and pro-Iran fighters

Israeli air strikes killed 23 pro-Iran fighters in Syria on Thursday, a monitor said, the latest in a spate of Israeli airstrikes on Iranian targets to halt Tehran ambitions to develop a military presence on its doorstep.

Israel has pledged to prevent its main enemy from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, where it is backing President Bashar al-Assad's regime alongside Russia and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The pre-dawn raids killed three Iranians and seven Tehran-backed foreign fighters near Kisweh south of the capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Eight Syrian air defence forces also lost their lives in both Mezzeh and Jisr Baghdad, west of the capital, the Britain-based war monitor said.

Five Syrian members of pro-Iran group were killed in the Ezra area in the southern province of Daraa.

A Syrian regime army source quoted by the regime's news agency SANA said air defences responded to two waves of Israeli strikes after midnight that targeted the Damascus area and then positions in Daraa and the adjacent province of Quneitra.

"The attack wounded eight fighters," the source said, without elaborating on where they had been stationed or their nationality.

AFP correspondents in Damascus heard loud explosions around 1:15am (11:15pm GMT Wednesday).

State television broadcast images showing explosions in the sky.

An Israeli army spokesman declined to comment on the strikes when contacted by AFP.

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Israel has carried out repeated strikes in Syria since the civil war erupted in 2011, mainly targeting regime forces and their Iranian and Hezbollah allies.

Israel's political leadership has spoken publicly of the bombing camaign, although the army rarely comments on individual strikes.

'Will not save' Idlib

Last month, Damascus accused the Israeli air force of carrying out an attack on the T4 airbase in central Syria, which the Observatory said killed at least three Iran-backed militiamen.

In December, the Observatory said Israeli air strikes killed three foreigners fighting alongside government forces south of the capital.

The previous month, the Israeli army claimed responsibility for a wave of air strikes against Syrian military sites and Iranian forces that killed 23 people including 16 foreigners.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said positions of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards foreign operations arm were among the targets.

The war in Syria has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of pro-democracy protests.

The reported Israeli strikes come as government forces press a blistering offensive against Syria's last major rebel bastion, in the Idlib region in the northwest.

The Syrian regime source said the strikes would not deter its forces from retaking the region.

"This escalation will not save the armed terrorist groups that are collapsing in Idlib and western Aleppo under the strikes of the Syrian Arab Army," the source said.

The bombardment has killed around 300 civilians since mid-December, the Observatory says.

The violence has seen more than 500,000 civilians flee their homes over the past two months, the United Nations says.

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