Israel strikes on Syria's Palmyra kill 79 pro-Iran fighters: new toll from monitor

Israeli strikes killed 79 pro-Iran fighters, including from Iraq and Lebanon, in the Syrian city of Palmyra, a monitor said Thursday, updating the toll for the raids a day earlier.

The toll was "the highest due to Israeli raids on pro-Iran groups in Syria since the start of the conflict" in the country in 2011, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based Observatory said Wednesday's strikes targeted three sites in Palmyra -- a modern city adjacent to renowned Greco-Roman ruins -- including one that hit a meeting of pro-Iranian groups with leaders from Iraq's Al-Nujaba group and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

The death toll has risen to "79 pro-Iran fighters", 53 of them Syrians, 22 foreign nationals "mostly from the Iraqi Al-Nujaba movement", in addition to "four from Hezbollah", said the Observatory, updating an earlier toll of 71 dead.

Syria's defence ministry said Wednesday the Israeli strikes on the city in central Syria killed 36 people and wounded more than 50 others.

Also Wednesday, Syria's foreign ministry condemned "in the strongest terms the brutal Israeli aggression against the city of Palmyra, which reflects the continuing crimes of Zionism against the countries of the region and their peoples".

Since civil war erupted in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria, mainly targeting the army and Iran-backed groups.

The Israeli military has intensified its strikes on targets in Syria since almost a year of hostilities with Iran-backed Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon escalated into all-out war in late September.

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in the country.

Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was taken over and pillaged by Islamic State jihadists at the height of the Syrian civil war.

The director general of antiquities and museums in Syria, Nazir Awad, told AFP the city's temples "did not suffer any direct damage" during the latest strikes.

"We need to conduct a survey on the ground to confirm these observations," he added.