Missile strikes kill Iranians in Syria
MISSILE strikes at two Iran-linked bases in Syria caused huge explosions and killed dozens of pro-government fighters, a monitoring group said on Monday, in an attack seen as Israel’s latest blow in a shadow war to contain Iranian influence.
Syrian state media reported major blasts in parts of Hama and Aleppo provinces on Sunday. It did not identify the targets, but other pro-government media outlets said they were weapons depots for the Syrian regime and Iranian forces.
While state-owned daily Tishreen said the missiles were launched from US and British military bases, analysts said the most likely source was Israel, which has previously acknowledged carrying out more than 100 strikes in Syria during the civil war.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israel carried out the attacks.
The monitoring group identified the main target as an arms depot for surface-to-surface missiles at a base in northern Syria known as Brigade 47.
It said the Neirab military air base, south-east of Aleppo city, was also hit. At least 26 people were killed, four of them Syrians, it said.
Representatives of a regional alliance that includes Iran, Syria and the Hezbollah paramilitary group said Iranians were among the dead, and some cited a much higher toll.
The names and faces of some of the dead appeared to be circulated across loyalist websites on Monday with captions describing them as heroes and victims of “wanton aggression”.
In Iran, there were conflicting reports on the casualties and on whether Iranian assets were struck.
Tehran has sent thousands of fighters to bolster Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including proxy forces from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Seven years after Syria’s largely peaceful uprising morphed into a civil war, the country is the stage for proxy conflicts of global powers.
Israel has watched anxiously as Iran shored up Assad’s rule with weapons and money, then committed its troops and developed military infrastructure across the country.
Israel has been pushing for the US to maintain a military presence in Syria to counterbalance Iran. US forces already have clashed with Iranian-backed militias that had advanced against positions of local fighters supported by the US.
Israel has escalated its warnings about Iran in recent weeks, as a US deadline approaches for deciding whether to remain in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Israel’s leadership is pushing for the deal to be scrapped or adjusted, although some in the security establishment have warned of the instability that may cause.
The Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar, which supports the Syrian government, reported that the targets struck on Sunday night were weapons storage sites for the regime and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. The newspaper said “bunker-buster” bombs were used.
Iran has threatened to retaliate against Israel following the death of seven of its officers in an Israeli strike on the T-4 military base in Syria in early April.
Speaking in Washington on Sunday, Israeli defence minister Avigdor Liberman said Israel had three problems: “Iran, Iran, Iran.”
He has threatened to hit back if Iran retaliates for the T-4 attack.
Jonathan Spyer, a fellow with the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies, said it appeared to be “common sense” that Israel was responsible for Sunday night’s strikes.
Spyer said that with Israel determined to prevent the “consolidation and entrenchment” of Iranian influence in Syria, “the chances of confrontation between Israel and Iran are quite significant”.
Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Michael Oren, a deputy minister in the prime minister’s office and a former ambassador to the US, declined to directly comment on the strikes, but said Israel is committed to enforcing its “red lines”.
“If that leads to an escalation, it is on the heads of Syria,” he said.