ISRAEL
SAYS IT 'WILL NOT STOP' ATTACKING IRAN IN SYRIA, ESCALATES MILITARY CAMPAIGN
4/28/20 AT 6:31 PM
The head of
Israel's military appears to have acknowledged the country's nvolvement in
recent strikes in Syria, warning a semi-secret campaign against Iran has
escalated.
In a
statement carried by a number of Israeli media outlets Tuesday, Israeli Defense
Minister Naftali Bennett stopped short of directly acknowledging his forces
were behind airstrikes Monday near Damascus but stated that Israel has
"moved from blocking Iran's entrenchment in Syria to forcing it out of
there, and we will not stop."
"We will
not allow more strategic threats to grow just across our borders without taking
action," he added, as translated by the Times of Israel. "We
will continue to take the fight to the enemy's territory."
Bennett had hinted at new
Israeli actions on Sunday, telling listeners of the 103FM radio station to stay
tuned for reports of Israel intensifying its anti-Iran efforts in Syria.
The official Syrian Arab News
Agency reported that Monday that Israeli strikes killed three civilians in the
Al-Adliya and Al-Hujaira, citing Quneitra Governor Hammam Dibbiyat. The United
Kingdom-based, opposition-tied Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also
reported on three civilian casualties in these same southern capital
countryside areas, but could not determine whether they were the result of
Israeli actions or shrapnel from Syrian anti-aircraft fire.
The monitor also said four
individuals loyal to Iran and its allied Lebanese militia Hezbollah had been
killed outside Damascus between Al-Kiswah and Sahnaya.
Less than a week before these
strikes, Syrian air defenses again were activated in response to what Damascus
said was an Israeli attack, this time over the skies of the central city of
Palmyra. The Syrian Arab News Agency said the anti-air batteries successfully
blocked a number of missiles, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has
reported the deaths of nine individuals aligned to Iran and Hezbollah, three of
whom were Syrians.
Tehran was an early supporter
of longtime partner Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's military efforts to
quell a rebel and jihadi uprising backed by the United States and allies in the
Middle East and Europe. Israel accused Iran and partnered paramilitary forces
of establishing forward positions potentially capable of attacking Israel,
however, and began its own intervention, conducting airstrikes and
providing some support to insurgents.
Syria has since been a primary
venue for the decades-long Iran-Israel rivalry. An Israeli military
official told Newsweek in late February that the
armed forces were planning on ramping up their counter-Iran campaign abroad,
especially by preemptively targeting efforts to export and establish
precision-guided munitions capabilities among groups like Hezbollah.
An Iranian official, however,
also told Newsweek at the time that any attack on the Islamic
Republic would be met with retaliation, as did the U.S. killing of
Revolutionary Guard Quds Force commander Major General Qassem Soleimani at
Baghdad International Airport in January. Iran answered the operation with a
barrage of missiles targeting U.S. positions in Iraq and by accelerating
efforts to expel U.S. forces from the region.
While the U.S.-Iran feud has
most recently played out in the Persian Gulf with both nation's navies
exchanging threats amid a tense encounter earlier this month, Iraq
continues to present a major flashpoint. The Pentagon and local militias have
exchanged fire in sometimes deadly incidents over the past few months and
Israel has hinted at its growing involvement in Iraq, where unclaimed strikes
against the Iran-aligned paramilitaries last year were widely blamed on Israel.
One Iraqi group calling itself
Usbat al-Thayyireen and claiming attacks that killed U.S. and allied coalition
troops published a video message last month in which it claimed to
have weapons capable of reaching Israel.
Rocket attacks that Israel
blames directly on the Revolutionary Guard have already crossed the contested
border with Syria, where Moscow's objections to Israel's unsanctioned strikes
have not translated into activating advanced Russian defense systems. As fellow
backers of Assad, Moscow and Tehran coordinate on operations in
Syria but Russian President Vladimir Putin also has close ties with
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
With Israel warning it will
expand its campaign against Iran, Tehran has also touted new military
capabilities it argued could be used against its archfoe. Earlier this month,
Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami unveiled new weaponized drones he said
were capable of flying up to 45,000 feet and traveling more than 930 miles
away, putting Israel in range of a country already possessing the region's
largest and most advanced missile arsenal.
Iran's development of missiles
and its support for foreign militias factored into the Trump administration's
decision two years ago to leave a 2015 nuclear deal with major world powers and
reinstate impose sanctions that have contributed to the rise in regional
tensions. While Iran is not known to possess nuclear weapons, Israel is
believed to maintain an arsenal of its own, though it maintains a strict policy
of deliberate ambiguity, neither confirming nor denying these capabilities.
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