At least 23 soldiers and militiamen killed in the latest Israeli attack in Syria, according to the SOHR

At least 23 Syrian soldiers and militiamen allied with Bachar al-Asad's government were killed in the early hours of Wednesday morning in a new Israeli air attack on the province of Deir al-Zur in the east of the Arab country, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

The official Syrian news agency SANA, citing an unidentified military source, reported that the attack by the "Israeli enemy" took place in the early hours of the morning against the town of Deir al-Zur and the town of Al-Bukamal, in the same region, without providing a balance of victims.

However, the Observatory, which is based in the United Kingdom and has a broad network of collaborators on the ground, stated in a communiqué that the action caused the death of 23 people, most of them fighters close to the Islamic Republic of Iran (a partner of Al-Asad's government and a country with a broad network of Shiite groups that collaborate by interfering in the affairs of other states such as Syria, as in the case of the Hezbollah militia), and injured another 28, and that the number of deaths could therefore increase in the coming hours.

"The second wave of Israeli incursions into Syria this year killed 23 people," the SOHR stated, adding that the victims were seven Syrian soldiers and the "rest militia close to Iran". The latest attacks took place on 7 January against positions in southern Syria and south of the capital Damascus, killing three pro-Iranian fighters. 

In 2020, Israel reached some 50 targets in Syria, according to an annual report published at the end of December by the Hebrew army. Since the beginning of the Syrian war in 2011, the Israeli state has carried out hundreds of offensives against Syrian government troops and allied Iranian forces and Hezbollah fighters. 

Israel continues with its efforts to put an end to this influence of the ayatollahs' regime in certain areas of the Middle East, which is leading to dangerous instability in the region, which it is currently attempting to combat through operations such as this and diplomatic movements seeking peace, the most representative being the past Abraham Agreements signed between Arab countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan with Israel with a view to establishing diplomatic ties with the Jewish country.