Explosion in Syria kills at least 3, likely caused by drone strike targeting militiamen

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An explosion in eastern Syria on Wednesday killed at least three people, according to reports. A war monitoring group said the blast was likely caused by a drone strike that targeted Iran-backed militiamen.

No group claimed responsibility for an attack in the area and reports about what had happened were sketchy. A Britain-based opposition war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said four people died when the strike hit a building housing Iran-backed militiamen in the province of Deir el-Zour. It said eight people were wounded.

A local activist collective, Deir Ezzor 24, reported that the building was used as base for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

2 DIE FROM CHOLERA IN SYRIA AFTER A DEVASTATING EARTHQUAKE DAMAGES HEALTH, WATER INFRASTRUCTURE

A suspected drone strike in the province of Deir el-Zour, Syria, killed at least three people on March 8, 2023. (AP Photo)

Syrian state media, however, claimed that a mine "left by terrorists" — a term often used by the government for opposition forces battling Assad’s side in the war — detonated in the area, killing three people and wounding seven. The state media reports showed photographs of a building with several floors collapsed and reduced to rubble, as well as a destroyed truck.

SYRIA'S LACK OF MEDICAL CARE AND POOR WATER QUALITY EXACERBATES CHOLERA OUTBREAK

Syria's 12-year civil war has killed at least 300,000 people and displaced half the country’s population of 23 million.

The militant Islamic State group once had a stronghold in much of northeastern Syria as part of its so-called caliphate. Today, several groups, including U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces as well as Syrian government troops with their Russian and Iranian allies control the area. However, IS sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks there.

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Past attacks on Iranian and Iranian-linked targets in eastern Syria have been attributed to either the United States or Israel, though the latter rarely acknowledges its involvement in such attacks.