Death of colonel said to be in charge of weapons compound offers clues to Israeli strikes on Syria
Quest for a tough stance against Iranian influence looms behind escalation
Syrian army colonel Amjad Ali lectured students in a red-carpeted auditorium, in front of an empty blackboard. Photos of the talk show a man with a moustache and a receding hairline, some of the last images of him before his death in an Israeli air strike near Damascus two months ago.
President Bashar Al Assad’s loyalists put up copies of his death notice on social media with the undated photos. One of his friends wrote that he and Ali studied a masters in engineering together.
“He was a scientific asset,” his friend said on Facebook.
These accounts, combined with Syrian opposition reconnaissance of an Iran-linked site near Damascus, suggest Ali was a previously unknown player in a confrontation between Israel and Iran, within the theatre of Syria’s civil war.
The confrontation has transformed into a war of attrition since Israel intensified attacks on targets in Syria in February. The attacks, part of a campaign happening since 2012 that has intensified in recent years, aim to thwart Iranian arms transfers to militias.
Recent strikes were reportedly due to suspicions that Iran has been transporting military hardware using aid flights to Syria, and by road from Iraq, following the deadly earthquake in February. Syrian opposition sources in Amman say Ali was killed when two Israeli rockets hit a site containing weapons and a military hardware workshop, at about midnight on February 19. He was reportedly in charge of the compound 5km south of Damascus.
Another Syrian soldier was killed at the site where personnel from Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah – created and funded by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – also worked, sources say.
An opposition member who has been gathering intelligence about the compound says part of Ali’s duties was to liaise with Hezbollah operatives, who used to leave the compound by nightfall, leaving Syrian military personnel behind. He says the rest of the Syrian soldiers “didn’t know much about what the Hezbollah elements were doing”.
Relying on Hezbollah and other militias sponsored by Tehran, including several groups from Iraq, Iran has been using Syria to settle scores with Israel and the US.
Among the assets in Iran’s zone of influence is a supply route from the Iraqi border to Lebanon, and areas near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, south-west of Damascus.
Using Syria as a launchpad – including for rocket attacks this month on the Golan Heights – has minimised prospects of retaliation in Iran.
But a European diplomat says while the Israeli attacks have mainly aimed to contain Iran in Syria, they could be a dress rehearsal for an eventual Israeli strike on Iran against its nuclear capabilities.
“Israel feels it is being encircled by an almost-nuclear power,” the diplomat says. “It is telling Iran that we will hit you with all we can.”
Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on targets in Syria since the Iran nuclear deal all but collapsed in 2018. Pro-government media in Tehran this month reported that two members of the IRGC were killed in Israeli attacks near Damascus.
The IRGC is in charge of external relations with Iran’s proxies and military allies in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Syrian researcher Wael Alwan, head of information at the Jusoor information centre in Istanbul, says airports, arms depots, air defence batteries, drones, guidance systems, radar and communications centres have been attacked.
Israel has also launched attacks on bases belonging to Shiite militia supervised by the IRGC, Mr Alwan says. Among them are the mainly Pakistani Zainabiyoun and the mainly Afghan Fatemiyoun militias, as well as Al Baqir near Aleppo.
The Zainabiyoun and Fatemiyoun operate around the agricultural town of Al Bukamal on the Euphrates River near the border with Iraq, widely regarded as a main entry point of Iranian-supplied weapons.
“The Israeli strikes have become more frequent and more dense, as Iran has been sending more qualitative weapons to its allies,” Mr Alwan says.
Al Bukamal is also situated within a wider geopolitical struggle in the region. To the east, Russian and US forces have co-existed since 2015, partly because they set up channels to avoid clashes.
When attacking the Syrian military, Mr Alwan says Israel has been careful to avoid units closely linked with Russia, focusing on formations that have acted as proxies for Tehran.
Among them are the First Corps, south of Damascus, the 90th Brigade and the Fourth Division, the most well-equipped unit in the Syrian military, led by Maher Al Assad, the President’s only living brother.
After rockets were fired into Israel by pro-Iranian militias in Syria and Lebanon this month, the Israeli military said it attacked a Fourth Division compound, and radar systems and artillery units linked to the Syrian military.
Commentator Ayman Abdel Nour says the targets also included the perimeter of a villa belonging to Maher Al Assad, west of Damascus. Mr Abdel Nour describes that attack as twisting the ear of the regime.
“Even where there is a Syrian flag, Iran operates,” he says.
Ali’s death notice listed his hometown as Sheikh Badr, in the Alawite Mountains. Like most members of the Syrian military, he was a member of the minority sect that has dominated Syria since a 1963 coup.
His death is unlikely to be avenged. Tehran considers regime elements dispensable.