ANBAR, Iraq (Reuters) – Unidentified jets hit buildings and trucks being used by Iran-aligned militia groups in the Syrian town of Albukamal along a strategic border crossing with Iraq late on Friday, Iraqi security and border officials told Reuters.
A local commander with Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), a group of mainly Shi’ite Muslim armed groups also known as Hashid Shaabi, said four people were killed in the strikes, without giving details of their nationalities.
However the commander denied that any of the groups’ fighters deployed near the Syrian borders had been killed or wounded.
The strikes targeted an eight-truck convoy, destroying at least four trucks, said the sources who have contacts with the Syrian border officials. The officials said three buildings used by one of the Iranian-backed militia groups were also targeted.
Fighters allied with Iran, including Hezbollah, now hold sway in vast areas in eastern, southern and northwestern Syria and in several suburbs around the capital.
Israel has for years carried out attacks on what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran’s influence has grown since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in a civil war that started in 2011.
A U.S. military official said the U.S. did not conduct any defensive strikes overnight.
(Reporting by Kamal Ayash in Anbar and Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Amman; Writing by Ahmed Rasheed; Editing by Jan Harvey)
