Israel says it struck positions of Iran’s elite Quds Force
In its most significant intervention in Syria’s 7-year conflict, Israel attacked “dozens” of targets of the Assad regime and Iranian forces overnight.
The Israel Defense Forces claimed Thursday morning that it set back Iranian military capabilities in Syria by “many months” with the attacks. The IDF said the operations followed the firing of about 20 rockets into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The Israeli military said that, while degrading the Iranian force in Syria, it is not seeking an escalation of hostilities with Tehran.
Pro-Assad forces appeared to launch rockets in retaliation for two Israeli strikes on the T-4 base in central Syria — where Iranian personnel are stationed and reportedly have a control center for drone flights — since February, and a claimed Israeli missile attack on the Kisweh base south of Damascus on Tuesday.
Several Revolutionary Guards, including a commander, were slain at T-4, while Wednesday’s missiles are said to have killed about 15 military personnel at the Kisweh base, including eight Iranians.
The IDF said the rockets were fired by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ al-Quds Force. While Israel has blamed Iran for drone overflights of Israeli territory, it was the first time the IDF attributed an attack directly to the Islamic Republic.
IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said no Grad or Fajr-5 rockets struck Israeli territory. Four projectiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system and the rest fell in Syria.
The IDF attacked Quds Forces’ intelligence centers, weapons depots, storage facilities, observation posts, and logistics centers, as well as the rocket launcher that started the exchange. Among locations given were the al-Kiswah base, an Iranian compound “north of Damascus”, storage warehouses at Damascus International Airport, and observation posts and munitions in the zone near the Golan Heights.
“All of the targets that we engaged were effectively destroyed,” Conricus asserted.
While saying that Israel is not seeking a confrontation with Tehran, the spokesman said, “The IDF will not tolerate this Iranian presence on the Golan and in Syria.”
Syrian State news agency SANA initially claimed that air defenses had intercepted “scores” of “hostile Israeli missiles”. It later acknowledged that military bases, an arms depot, and military radar were struck although “most” missiles had not reached their targets.
Iran’s State outlet Press TV played down the clashes, saying that “several” Israeli missiles had been mentioned. It did mention any Iranian targets.
Earlier Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the situation in Syria, including “ensuring ongoing military cooperation”.
Russian forces offered no resistance to the Israeli operations last night. Moscow is also continuing to delay any provision of advanced S-300 air defense missile systems to the Assad regime.
Israel and Russia have maintained a de facto cooperation over Syria since September 2015, when Netanyahu accepted Russia’s military intervention to prop up the Assad regime and Putin assured that Iranian-led militia and Hezbollah would not move into the area near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Russia’s English-language State media limits itself this morning to recycling the claim of pro-Assad outlets of “dozens” of Israeli missiles downed.
Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov tipped off the Kremlin’s line in a cautious statement, with no criticism of Israel:
All of this is very alarming and raising concerns. It is necessary to deescalate tensions. We are verifying all the details now.
We’ve got contacts with all parties.
www.mesop.de