Unidentified Aircraft Targeted Truck Convoy in Syria, Says Iraqi Official 

An Iraqi soldier patrols the border with Syria. (Reuters file photo)
An Iraqi soldier patrols the border with Syria. (Reuters file photo)
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Unidentified Aircraft Targeted Truck Convoy in Syria, Says Iraqi Official 

An Iraqi soldier patrols the border with Syria. (Reuters file photo)
An Iraqi soldier patrols the border with Syria. (Reuters file photo)

Unidentified aircraft targeted a truck convoy stationed on the Syrian side of the border with Iraq on Sunday night, an Iraqi border official said on Monday.

Multiple air strikes destroyed part of a 10-truck convoy that had used the Qaim border crossing from Iraq to cross into Syria on Saturday, the border official said.

The border crossing is close to the Syrian town of Abu Kamal, also known as Al Bukamal, which is near to where the US military carried out air strikes on Friday against two facilities it said were used by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and groups it backs. Those air strikes were carried out in response to a spate of attacks against US forces in both Iraq and Syria, the Pentagon said.

Two Iraqi militia sources also said on Monday that air strikes by unidentified aircraft on Sunday hit a building the militia was using near Abu Kamal.

The building struck by the attack was evacuated by their militia fighters on Saturday and no casualties were reported, the sources said.

Reuters was unable to independently verify that the attacks occurred.



Gaza Rescuers Say Israeli Strike on Hospital Kills 7

Damage at the Al-Wafaa Hospital in central Gaza, pictured on December 29 - AFP
Damage at the Al-Wafaa Hospital in central Gaza, pictured on December 29 - AFP
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Gaza Rescuers Say Israeli Strike on Hospital Kills 7

Damage at the Al-Wafaa Hospital in central Gaza, pictured on December 29 - AFP
Damage at the Al-Wafaa Hospital in central Gaza, pictured on December 29 - AFP

Gaza's civil defense agency said an airstrike hit a hospital Sunday, killing at least seven people, while Israel said it had targeted militants at the no longer functioning facility.

"Seven martyrs and several injured people, including critical cases, have been recovered following the Israeli strike on the upper floor of Al-Wafaa Hospital in central Gaza City," a civil defense agency statement said.

Israel's military said it had carried out a "precise strike" targeting members of Hamas's aerial defense unit operating from a "command and control center in a building that served in the past as the Al-Wafaa hospital".

The health ministry in Gaza said the hospital was still in use.

"The Al-Wafaa Hospital is partially operational, providing care to patients with physical disabilities," the ministry's director general, Munir al-Barsh, told AFP.

"The hospital had been rehabilitated and was getting ready to receive patients. Had it not been targeted by Israeli shelling today, it would have been ready to fully reopen in the next few days," he said.

The strike on Al-Wafaa Hospital came a day after the military ended a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, an assault the World Health Organization reported left the facility empty of patients and staff.

The military also detained the hospital's chief, Hossam Abu Safiyeh, saying he was suspected of being a Hamas militant.

Since October 6, Israel's operations in the Palestinian territory have focused on northern Gaza, where it says its land and air offensive aims to prevent Hamas from regrouping.

However, the military has also carried out airstrikes and shelling in other areas of Gaza as it presses on with its campaign against the militants.