8 Hizbullah Fighters Killed in Syria's Idlib

Hizbullah lost at least eight fighters in northwest Syria in skirmishes with insurgents and airstrikes by Turkey's air force, an opposition war monitor and the Iran-backed group said.

The casualties followed the death of at least 33 Turkish soldiers earlier this week.

The deaths marked the highest for the group in Syria in years as Hizbullah has pulled out many of its fighters from the neighboring country.

Hizbullah sent thousands of its battle-hardened fighters into Syria a year after the country's conflict began in 2011, helping President Bashar Assad's forces win major battles against insurgents. But over the past two years, Hizbullah has withdrawn many of its forces, leaving only a few hundred of them in several areas around the war-torn country.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 14 Hizbullah fighters were killed Friday afternoon in the village of Talhiyeh when Turkish drones attacked their post as well as others of the Syrian army. The Observatory said 48 Syrian soldiers have also been killed since Thursday in Turkish bombardments and drone attacks in the region.

The Observatory's chief, Rami Abdul Rahman, said the 14 Hizbullah fighters included 10 Lebanese citizens and four of other nationalities, including at least one Iranian.

Hizbullah later released a statement listing the names and photos of eight of its fighters, including an Iranian cleric identified as Sayyed Ali Zengani. It gave no details other than saying that they "were martyred while performing their jihadi duties."

More than a thousand Hizbullah fighters, including several founding members, have been killed in Syria.