Syria has accused Israel of bombing Iranian-backed militia bases in northeast Syria near the Iraqi border early this morning.
The incident marks the 4th such alleged IDF attack in 3 weeks, with military defectors and Western intelligence sources describing the raid as one of Israel’s most extensive in recent months.
Heavy bombardments were reported just after 1 AM after unidentified aircraft launched countless missiles toward eighteen separate targets which are operated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, including its Sa’ka training camp on the southwestern outskirts of Deir Ezzor city – where Shi’ite militants undergo training prior to deployment in Syria – alongside warehouses in a nearby compound.
In tandem, warehouses and other installations under guard of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group and the Afghan Liwa Fatemiyoun militia were struck near the town of Al-Mayadeen and in a desert region surrounding the Al Bukamal border town on the Euphrates River, which lies on the most important land route for deliveries of Iranian weapons and fighters into Syria
According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) citing local sources, at least 23 members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Syrian Armed Forces (SAF) and Iranian proxy militias were killed in last night’s air strikes. Significant material damage was also inflicted on military infrastructure causing reports of loud blasts long after the raid as munition arsenals at the site exploded, said the SOHR.
According to circulating reports unable to be immediately verified by TV7, senior official of Syria’s military intelligence branch Ahmad al-Afar was also killed in the attack.
Other airstrikes attributed to the IDF on southern Syria last week is believed to have killed at least 3 militia operatives near Damascus and the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. The previous week, airstrikes targeted the northern Syrian vicinity of Masyaf.
Iran’s proxy militias working with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group now hold command vast areas in eastern, southern and northwestern Syria, as well as several suburbs around Damascus. They also control Syrian- Lebanese border areas.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit did not confirm nor deny involvement in today’s alleged strikes in response to TV7’s request for comment.
Amid a working tour of northern Israel yesterday, Alternate Premier and Defense Minister Benny Gantz declared: “We are still on high alert across our different borders and will continue to confront anyone, near or far, who tries to challenge us.”
After meeting with senior commanders at the IDF 210th military division in the Golan Heights, Lt. Gen. (res) Gantz conducted a further briefing at a strategic point on the Syrian border.
“We aren’t sitting around and waiting – “We’re active defensively, politically, and economically,” underscored Israel’s military chief.
Last month IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi publicly declared that Israeli missile strikes have “slowed down Iran’s entrenchment in Syria.”
Israel has long declared it will not tolerated an Iranian presence in Syria, and will undertake any necessary action to prevent its arch-foe from establishing a permanent presence in the war-torn country.