Reports: Israeli drone attack kills 3 in southern Syria

BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli drone attack in southern Syria on Wednesday killed at least three pro-government gunmen, an activist group and a Lebanese TV station reported.

The Al-Manar TV, an outlet of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group, said the strike targeted a car carrying members of the Syrian National Defense Committees near the predominantly Druze village of Hader. The village is surrounded by Syrian opposition-controlled territory.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack killed three NDC and two Hezbollah fighters.

The Israeli military had no comment.

Hezbollah sent thousands of fighters to help Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces in the civil war.

In January, the Lebanese group accused Israel of carrying out an airstrike on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, which killed several Hezbollah members and a prominent Iranian general.

In neighboring Lebanon, meanwhile, an explosion occurred at a base belonging to a hard-line pro-Syrian Palestinian group called the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, killing a Palestinian fighter and wounding six, the state-run National News Agency said.

The news agency said the blast Wednesday in the village of Qusaya near the Syrian border also destroyed two vehicles belonging to the group.

The hard-line PFLP-GC has several bases in Lebanon and was targeted in the past by Israel’s air force.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.