Iran could launch revenge attack for airbase bombing, says Israel

ISRAEL has warned that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard may be planning an air attack in retaliation for a suspected Israeli strike that killed seven Iranians at an airbase in Syria earlier this month.

Tensions between the two nations are running high as Israel struggles to stop Iran from gaining a permanent military foothold in Syria and using Syrian territory to pass sophisticated weaponry to Hizbollah, the Lebanese militant group.

Days before Western airstrikes against the Syrian regime last week, Israel is believed to have carried out its own attack on the T4 airbase in central Syria on April 9. Both Russia and the Syrian regime accused Israel of being behind the strike but the Israeli military has refused to confirm or deny its involvement, as it does with nearly all operations in Syria. Iranian forces operate

‘The Revolutionary Guard is most likely to be the unit that will try to wage an attack against Israel’

out of the T4 base and seven Iranian military advisers were killed in the attack.

Senior Iranian officials have promised revenge and Ali Akbar Velayati, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said the attack “will not remain without a response”.

“Israel’s defence establishment understands that the Revolutionary Guard is most likely to be the designated unit that will try to wage an attack against Israel,” an official said.

In an apparent warning to Iran, Israel released reconnaissance photographs showing what it said were two Iranian drone bases inside Syria.

Security services are concerned that an Iranian attack may try to disrupt the 70th anniversary of Israel’s founding, which is being celebrated this week.

Thousands of Israelis are expected to visit military cemeteries for Memorial Day today before heading to public parks for barbecues tomorrow.