SYRIAN media agency Sana said today that the Israeli military carried out air strikes in a strategic eastern province, wounding two soldiers and causing material damage. There was no comment from Israel on the reported strikes.

Sana quoted an unnamed military official as saying that the air strikes late on Monday targeted military positions in Deir el-Zour.

The eastern Deir el-Zour province that borders Iraq contains oil fields and has been a strategic province throughout Syria’s conflict, which is now in its 13th year. 

Iran-backed militia groups and Syrian forces control the area and have often been the target of Israeli war planes in previous strikes.

Britain-based opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and activist collective Deir Ezzor 24 said that the air strike targeted positions in the Boukamal region along the Iraqi border, a stronghold for Iran-backed militia groups. 

Both groups said that they could not identify the source of the air strike.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria in recent years, including attacks on the airports in the capital of Damascus, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations. 

The strikes often target Syrian forces or groups allegedly backed by Iran.