Monitor: Toll from Israeli strikes on Syria's Palmyra rises to 92

A Syria war monitor said on Friday that Israeli strikes on the city of Palmyra this week killed 92 pro-Iran fighters, after a United Nations representative said they were likely the deadliest to date. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday's attack targeted three sites in Palmyra, with one hitting a meeting of pro-Iranian groups that also involved commanders from Iraq's Al-Nujaba group and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

The toll has risen to "92 dead: 61 Syrian pro-Iran fighters", 11 of them working for Hezbollah, "and 27 foreign nationals mostly from Al-Nujaba, plus four from Hezbollah", the Observatory said.

The Britain-based war monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, had previously reported 82 dead, while the Syria defence ministry on Wednesday said 36 people were killed.

The UN deputy special envoy to Syria, Najat Rochdi, told the Security Council on Thursday that the raid was "likely the deadliest Israeli strike in Syria to date".

The Observatory said the strikes also targeted "a weapons depot near the industrial area" in Palmyra, a modern city adjacent to globally renowned Greco-Roman ruins.

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

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

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 full-scale war in late September.