Death toll rises to 42 after Israeli airstrikes hit Syria's Aleppo

DAMASCUS -- The death toll from Israeli airstrikes that hit Syria's northern city of Aleppo has risen to 42, a war monitor reported on Friday, updating the previous report of 36 fatalities.

The airstrikes targeted a Hezbollah warehouse in the Jibrin area near Aleppo International Airport before dawn Friday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based watchdog group said the attacks, which reverberated across the northern Aleppo countryside for about three hours, were the deadliest Israeli airstrikes in Syria in the past three years.

Defense factories in the Safira area were also targeted, the watchdog added.

The fatalities in Aleppo also included six members of Hezbollah, unnamed Lebanese military sources told Xinhua on Friday.

A statement from the Syrian Defense Ministry said that around 1:45 a.m. local time on Friday (2245 GMT Thursday), the Israeli military launched aerial attacks from the direction of Athria, southeast of Aleppo, targeting multiple locations in the Aleppo countryside.