BEIRUT: Eight Syrian fighters working with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were killed in a knife attack in Syria’s Deir Ezzor province, said a war monitor.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said unidentified armed men raided the position of the fighters in the Syrian desert, the second deadly attack on pro-Iran fighters in just two days in the area of Mayadeen.
The eight fighters killed in the attack worked under the command of Iran’s Guards and were slaughtered with knives, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Observatory, which has a vast network of sources in Syria.
Control of Deir Ezzor is divided between US-backed Kurdish-led forces to the east of the Euphrates river and Syrian government forces. Terrorists of militant Islamic State (IS) group are also active in the province.
The Observatory group has said gunmen assassinated three Syrians who were also affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, during an attack on a military position on the outskirts of Mayadeen city.
The groups have supported President Bashar al-Assad’s forces since the beginning of Syria’s civil war in 2011.
According to the Observatory thousands of pro-Iran fighters are deployed in Deir Ezzor province,
While IS or Daesh was defeated in Syria in 2019, its remnants continue to conduct deadly strikes especially in the vast Badia desert which is spread from the outskirts of Damascus to the Iraqi border.
The border area is an important section of the route that armed groups use to shift arms, fighters, and even some consumer goods.
