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Israeli military strikes Iranian targets inside Syria Israeli military strikes Iranian targets inside Syria
(about 6 hours later)
Israel’s military has said it struck Iranian Quds targets inside Syria and warned Syrian forces not to attack Israeli territory or forces. Israel has struck several targets in Syria as part of its increasingly open assault on Iran’s presence there, shaking the night sky over Damascus with an hour of loud explosions on a second consecutive night of military action.
Syrian state media cited a Syrian military source as saying Israel launched an “intense attack through consecutive waves of guided missiles”, but that Syrian air defences destroyed most of the “hostile targets”. The threat of open confrontation between Israel and Iran has long simmered in Syria, where the Iranian military established a presence in support of Bashar al-Assad early in the civil war.
Witnesses in Damascus said loud explosions rang out in the night sky for nearly an hour. Israel, regarding Iran as its biggest threat, has repeatedly attacked Iranian targets and those of allied militia, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, in Syria, aiming to push them far from its frontier.
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“We have started striking Iranian Quds targets in Syrian territory. We warn the Syrian Armed Forces against attempting to harm Israeli forces or territory,” Israel’s military said in a statement. The Israeli military said its fighter jets had attacked the Iranian targets early on Monday, which included munitions stores, a position in the Damascus International airport, an intelligence site and a military training camp.
The Quds Force is in charge of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ overseas operations. They also targeted Syrian defence batteries after coming under fire, the Israeli military said, and Russia, Assad’s strongest ally, said four Syrian soldiers were killed and six wounded.
The strikes followed cross-border attacks on Sunday in which Syria said it repelled an Israeli air attack. Israel said it intercepted a rocket fired at the Golan Heights. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said 11 people had been killed.
“We have a permanent policy, to strike at the Iranian entrenchment in Syria and hurt whoever tries to hurt us,” Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier. Syrian air defences, supplied by Russia, had destroyed more than 30 cruise missiles and guided bombs, the Russian defence ministry said, according to the RIA news agency.
The Israeli army said a popular winter sports site on Mount Hermon in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights would be shut for the day. It added that otherwise things remained “routine” along the frontier with Syria. Syrian state media, citing a military source, said the country had endured “intense attack through consecutive waves of guided missiles, but had destroyed most “hostile targets”.
Netanyahu last week acknowledged an Israeli attack on what he called an Iranian arms cache in Syria, where Tehran provides Damascus with vital support. Israel’s target was the Iranian Quds Force, a special unit in charge of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps overseas operations, the Israeli military said.
He told his cabinet Israel had carried out “hundreds” of attacks over the past years of Syria’s war to curtail Iran and its ally Lebanon’s Hezbollah. It followed a previous night of cross-border fire, which Israel said was prompted by a rocket fired at a packed ski resort in the Golan Heights, close to the frontier with Syria. Israel did not say who it suspected of carrying out the rocket attack.The Syrian regime said it was Israel that had first attacked, and its own air defences that had repelled the assault.
Usually silent about its attacks on Iranian targets near its frontier, Israel has lifted the veil this month, a sign of confidence in a campaign waged amid occasional tensions with Syria’s big-power backer Russia. Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is hoping to win a fifth term in elections on 9 April, has been playing up military sorties into Syria that Israel had previously preferred to keep quiet. “We have a permanent policy to strike at the Iranian entrenchment in Syria and hurt whoever tries to hurt us,” he said on Sunday.
Israel, which appointed a new military chief last week, also appeared keen to signal zero tolerance for the rocket launch on Sunday, which it said had been foiled by its Iron Dome interceptor system.
The Israeli army said the Mount Hermon ski resort in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights would be shut for the day. It said that otherwise things remained “routine” along the frontier with Syria.
Netanyahu last week acknowledged an Israeli attack on what he called an Iranian arms cache in Syria. He told his cabinet Israel had carried out “hundreds” of attacks to curtail Iran and its ally Hezbollah throughout the civil war.
Iran has said it has no plans to quit Syria, where it has helped Assad fight off an eight-year rebellion against his rule. Most of the country is back under Damascus’ control, and alliances with both Iran and Russia remain strong.
Last summer, Assad took back rebel-held territory in south-west Syria, near the Golan Heights, in a campaign that was supported by Iran-backed militias.
SyriaSyria
IsraelIsrael
IranIran
Middle East and North AfricaMiddle East and North Africa
Benjamin Netanyahu
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