Report: 3 dead in suspected drone strike in Syria

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — At least three people were killed in an explosion in eastern Syria on Wednesday, according to reports. A war monitoring group said the detonation was likely the result of a drone attack on Iranian-backed militants.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack and reports of what happened were mixed. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based opposition watchdog group, reported four deaths in the attack on a building housing Iran-backed militants in the province of Deir el-Zour. Eight people were injured, he said.

A local militant collective, Deir Ezzor 24, reported that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, a paramilitary body that is a key ally of President Bashar Assad, used the building as a base.

However, state media claimed that a mine “left by terrorists” – a term the government often uses to refer to opposition forces fighting alongside Assad in the war – had exploded in the area, killing three and injuring three to seven. State media showed photos of a collapsed and rubbledried multi-story building, as well as a wrecked truck.

At least 300,000 people have been killed in Syria’s 12-year civil war, which has also displaced half of the country’s 23 million people.

The Islamic State armed group has come to control much of northeastern Syria as part of its so-called caliphate. Now various groups, including US-backed Kurdish forces and Syrian troops with Russian and Iranian allies, control the areas. However, IS sleeper cells continue to carry out deadly attacks there.