At least seven killed in airstrikes targeting convoy in Syria: Monitor

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Airstrikes targeted a convoy of trucks that crossed into Syria’s Deir ez-Zor from Iraq on Sunday, killing at least seven, a war monitor reported. 

“Six refrigerated trucks crossed into the area from Iraq where they were targeted at the same time as drones of the Global Coalition were flying in the air, while ambulances rushed to transport the wounded,” the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

The monitor on Monday provided an update saying that at least seven people, "all of them non-Syrians" were killed as a result of the airstrikes, adding that the targeted convoy belonged to Iranian militias.

It is not immediately clear who carried out the attack. 

The strikes on Syria come a day after a drone attack on a facility of the Iranian ministry of defense in Isfahan, causing minor damage. The attack was immediately blamed on Israel by Iranian opposition social media.  

At least 15 pro-Iranian fighters were killed in a similar attack in November when airstrikes targeted a convoy reportedly carrying fuel tankers and weapons. In December, the Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff confirmed the Israeli Air Force had carried out the attack. 

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on regime-controlled areas of Syria, as well as Deir ez-Zor, throughout its 11-year civil war, often claiming to target Iran-affiliated militias, such as Lebanon's Hezbollah group which supports the Syrian army.  

There has not been any comment from neither Iraqi nor Syrian officials regarding the incident. 

Tit-for-tat attacks between the US and Iran playing out in Iraq and Syria have simmered down over the past year. In August, US forces launched airstrikes targeting facilities used by Iranian-backed militias in Deir ez-Zor in an attack it said was in retaliation to an attack on a US base.

Updated at 10:49PM with the number of casualties.