Senior Hezbollah member killed in Syria

News of Imad Al Amine’s death followed reports of an Israeli attack on Homs on Thursday.

Members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement carry the coffins of comrades who were killed in Israeli strikes in Syria in a funeral procession in southern Beirut on August 26, 2019.

A senior Hezbollah member stationed in Syria has been killed, media outlets affiliated with the Iran-backed party said on Sunday.

Imad Al Amine, known as Sayyed Al Gharib, died in the line of duty, the reports said.

News of his death followed reports of an Israeli attack on Homs in Syria on Thursday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack was aimed at Hezbollah’s military positions and weapons depots in Al Qusair, an area on the border with Hermel, a Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanon.

After the attack, it was reported that a senior commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps known as Sayed Ahmed Qurayshi had been killed.

Qurayshi a member of the Fatemiyoun division, an Iran-backed Afghan militia, had reportedly fought in Syria for years.

He was said to have taken part in operations alongside Qassem Suleimani, the former commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force.

Suleimani played a key role in expanding Iran’s military operations across the region and co-ordinated attacks by Tehran-backed militias on US forces and their allies.

He was assassinated in Baghdad last year in an air strike ordered by former US president Donald Trump.

Attacks on US targets in Iraq and Syria have intensified in recent weeks since a visit by an Iranian delegation led by Revolutionary Guards intelligence chief Hossein Taeb.

Taeb urged Iraqi and Syrian militias to step up attacks on US targets during a meeting in Baghdad this month, Reuters said previously.

The US conducted air strikes against Iran-backed militias along the Syrian-Iraqi border on June 27.

Israeli strikes on Syria also intensified last month. Western intelligence sources said they had been approved by Washington.

Israel has frequently carried out air strikes in Syria against the regime’s forces and allied Iran-backed militias. It did not comment on the attack on Thursday in Al Qusair.

On Monday, Israel carried out raids on southern Aleppo. Syrian opposition groups said the attack was aimed at IRGC bases and a weapons factory, and that two Syrian fighters and three pro-Iranian combatants were killed.

The strikes were the first to be reported since Israel’s new prime minister, Naftali Bennett, came to power last month.

Mr Bennett has vowed to pursue his predecessor’s policy of containing Iran’s growing military influence in Syria.