At least 14 pro-Iranian fighters were reportedly killed in a deadly strike near the Syria-Iraqi border, an independent war monitor said Wednesday, without specifying who carried out the attack.
The attack hit a convoy of "fuel tankers and trucks loaded with weapons," in the Albu Kamal area of the border, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The U.S.-led coalition told reporters in Iraq that it had no involvement in the raid. The Israeli military declined to comment.
An official of the Iraqi border guard said the trucks were transporting fuel from Iran bound for Lebanon overland through Iraq and Syria.
He said the convoy consisted of 22 tanker trucks, of which 10 were hit after entering Syrian territory through the al-Qaim – Albu Kamal border crossing. Four trucks were "completely burnt," he added.
The Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a wide network of sources in Syria, said at least 14 people were killed in the strike. It said a nearby militia position was also hit.
Contacted by AFP, a spokeswoman for the US-led coalition fighting the remnants of the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria said that the strike was not carried out by the United States or any other coalition country.
Israel says 'no comment'
A spokesman for the Israeli military told the AFP: "We do not comment on foreign press reports."
Israel rarely comments on its military actions in Syria, save for operations in direct response to what the army considers immediate threats.
But Israel has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of air and missile strikes in Syria, targeting both government positions and Iran-backed forces, since civil war broke out in the country in 2011.
Israel has said repeatedly it will not allow its archfoe Iran to gain a new foothold on its northern border.
In recent months, it has carried out multiple unconfirmed strikes in Syria, including one which killed five government troops in the capital Damascus and two that caused significant damage to the airport in the second city Aleppo.
Shiite militia groups close to Iran have a significant military presence across Syria and have been a key support to President Bashar Assad's forces.
Pro-Iran militias have a major presence around the Iraq-Syria border and are heavily deployed south and west of the Euphrates in Syria's Deir Ezzor province.
In September last year, attack drones operated by an unidentified military struck a convoy belonging to Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi, a paramilitary force made up mainly pro-Iran militias, in the Albu Kamal border area, killing at least three people.