8 killed in Israeli strike in Aleppo

Damascus, Jan 1 (IANS) An Israeli missile strike near the international airport of Aleppo city in northern Syria killed five pro-Iran militias and three civilians overnight two days ago, a war monitor reported.The strike killed five pro-Iran militias, including a Syrian national, whose wife, son, and nephew were also killed, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday.The UK-based watchdog group said Israel has targetted Syrian territories 45 times since the war on Gaza started in October, with 17 of them being rocket attacks by ground forces and 28 being aerial attacks, Xinhua news agency reported.Israel has recently increased its attacks on Syrian targets in tandem with its military campaign in the Gaza Strip.The Syrian Foreign Ministry on Friday condemned the Israeli attacks and urged decisive measures from the UN Security Council to put an end to these assaults.Syria has been engulfed in an over 12-year civil war, with the government forces of President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russia and Iran, fighting against various opposition groups.Israel, on the other hand, has a long-standing policy of preventing Iran from establishing a military presence in Syria by repeatedly conducting airstrikes to destroy alleged Iranian weapons supplies. --IANSint/khz

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