Israeli air strikes hit suspected Iranian weapons depots in Aleppo Syria
Damascus: Israel carried out an aerial attack southeast of Syria’s northern Aleppo province late Monday, a Syrian military official said.
The unidentified military official, quoted by the state news agency SANA, said Syrian air defences shot down most of the missiles in the attack that occurred just before midnight. The targets are still being identified, the official said.
Explosions in Aleppo.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor that has activists on the ground in Syria, said the Israeli strikes targeted weapons depots that belong to Iranian-backed militia operating in Aleppo’s Safira region.
The group said the strikes were followed by loud explosions.
The weapons depots were located inside Syrian military posts, the group said.
The attack took place on the eve of Eid Al-Adha, one of Islam’s holiest holidays.
Israel has launched hundreds of strikes against Iran-linked military targets in Syria over the years but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations. Last month, Israel reportedly carried out an attack on targets in central Syria.
Israel fears Iranian entrenchment on its northern frontier, and it has repeatedly struck Iran-linked facilities and weapons convoys destined for Hezbollah.
A suicide bomber killed at least 35 people and wounded dozens in a crowded market in the Sadr City neighbourhood of Baghdad on Monday (Tuesday AEST), the eve of the Eid al-Adha festival, security and hospital sources said.
AdvertisementMore than 60 people were wounded, a police source said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
People and security forces gather at the site of a bombing at a market in Sadr City, Iraq.Credit:AP
Hospital sources said the death toll could rise as some of the wounded were in critical condition.
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi held an urgent meeting with top security commanders to discuss the attack, the premier’s office said in a brief statement.
President Barham Salih posted a tweet saying: “With an awful crime they target civilians in Sadr city on the eve of Eid ... We will not rest before terrorism is cut off by its roots.â€
In April, the Sunni Muslim militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack on a market in Sadr City, Baghdad’s main Shiite Muslim neighbourhood, that killed four people and wounded 20.
Islamic State also claimed responsibility for a bomb attack last January that killed more than 30 in the crowded Tayaran Square market in central Baghdad - Iraq’s first big suicide bombing for three years.
Large bomb attacks were once an almost daily occurrence in the Iraqi capital but have dwindled since an Islamic State invasion of northern and western Iraq was defeated in 2017.
AP, Reuters
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