8 Pro-Iranian Fighters Killed In Knife Attack In Syria Amid Tensions With Israel

A war monitor reported that eight Syrian fighters working with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were killed Tuesday in a knife attack on their position in eastern Syria’s Deir Ezzor province.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, unidentified armed individuals stormed the location in the Syrian desert, killing pro-Iran fighters for the second time in two days in the Mayadeen area.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Observatory, said, “The eight dead fighters worked under the command of Iran’s Guards and were slaughtered using knives”.

Control of Deir Ezzor is divided between US-backed Kurdish-led troops to the east of the Euphrates and Iran-backed Syrian government forces and their proxies to the west, with Islamic State (IS) group jihadists also operating in the province.

The Observatory reported on Monday that gunmen killed three Syrians who were also serving with the Revolutionary Guards in an attack on a military location on the outskirts of Mayadeen.

Iran-backed groups have supported President Bashar al-Assad’s army since the civil war in Syria in 2011.

The Observatory added that thousands of pro-Iran proxy fighters have been deployed in Deir Ezzor province.

While IS was defeated territorially in Syria in 2019, its remnants continue to carry out devastating attacks, particularly in the vast Badia desert that stretches from the suburbs of Damascus to the Iraqi border.

The border area is an important part of the route that pro-Iran armed groups use to transport fighters, weapons, and even consumer products between Iraq and Syria.

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