Israel accused of killing dozens of Syria troops and Hezbollah fighters with major airstrikes near Aleppo

Beirut — The Syrian army said Friday that Israeli airstrikes near the northern city of Aleppo had killed or wounded "a number of" people and caused damage. A war monitoring group said the strikes killed 44 people, most of them Syrian troops.

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor group, said Israeli strikes hit missile depots belonging to Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group in Aleppo's southern suburb of Jibreen, near the Aleppo International Airport, and the nearby town of Safira, home to a sprawling military facility.

The observatory said 36 Syrian troops, seven Hezbollah fighters and a Syrian member of an Iran-backed group died and dozens of people were wounded, calling it the deadliest such attack in years.