Baladi News
Alleged Israeli air strikes in Syria over the last five months have killed some 140 people from Iran's military forces and allied militias, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in an estimate released Monday.
The Britain-based monitor said 113 of those had been killed in strikes attributed to Israel in the last two months alone.
Earlier this month Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz admitted for the first time that Israel had carried out around 200 air strikes in Syria over the last two years.
The Israeli military chiefly targets shipments or production sites of "advanced weapons" it fears are destined for use against it either inside Syria or from Lebanon by Shiite militia Hezbollah.
The Israeli military typically does not comment on reports of individual strikes.
The Observatory, which relies on a network of local sources in war-torn Syria, also estimated that 28 Syrian government forces and allied personnel were killed in explosions at weapons depots thought to be the result of accidental overheating.
It added that it had not noticed any withdrawal from Syria of Iranian forces and Shiite militias -- including fighters from Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq and countries in Asia.
The new estimate came as Israel's Ministry of Defense released satellite images of Damascus International Airport, a Syrian army base and Bashar al-Assad's official palace.
Source: i24 News