At least five killed in airstrikes on Iranian-backed militia positions at the Iraq-Syria border

According to published reports, positions of Iranian-backed militias at the Iraq-Syria border were targeted in airstrikes early Saturday, January 9. The state news agency IRNA confirmed these attacks, stating that five people were killed and several others injured. The Arabic network Al Arabiya reported, with video footage, that the positions of the Fatemiyoun militia at the Syria-Iraq border were hit by drone airstrikes. Security sources reported that during these attacks, eight trucks that had crossed from Iraq into Syrian territory were targeted. Official sources in the region, including the Syrian government, have not yet reacted to these reports. Meanwhile, Saudi media reported on Friday, January 8, that 11 commanders and members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed as a result of an Israeli attack on Damascus airport on Thursday night. Saudi media outlets Al Hadath and Al Arabiya cited sources claiming that IRGC commanders and Iranian-backed militia groups were awaiting the arrival of a 'high-level delegation' at the time of the attack. Among those killed was Nour Rashid, a commander of Iranian-backed militia groups in eastern Syria. Saudi media did not disclose the identities of the IRGC commanders and members killed in this attack. However, according to Fars, an Iranian media outlet close to the IRGC, Ramadan Sharif, the spokesperson for the IRGC, denied the report of 11 IRGC members being killed in the Damascus airport bombing. Meanwhile, Syrian military and intelligence sources announced on Friday that Israel targeted the main air defense base of the country on Thursday night, marking the latest attack of this kind since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Gaza. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported this as the seventy-third Israeli attack on Syria this calendar year but did not mention the number or identities of potential casualties resulting from it. In recent years, numerous attacks have been carried out against the IRGC and Iranian-backed militia groups in Syria, attributed to Israel, although the country rarely takes responsibility for them.