A senior U.S. intelligence official says Israel conducted overnight flights in Syria using information provided by the United States – a rare event of public cooperation between the two countries on the selection of targets there. and Syria.
The official said the strikes targeted a series of warehouses that were being used in a pipeline to store and platform weapons from Iran.
Following the Israeli strike accused of Iranian targets in Syria
The official said the warehouses also acted as a pipeline for components that support Iran’s nuclear program.
A U.S. official, who asked to remain anonymous on sensitive national security issues, said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke of the airstrike with Mossad boss Yossi Cohen at a public meeting at the popular Washington Café Milano restaurant Monday.
Mossad leader Yossi Cohen and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a White House meeting
(Photo: AFP)
Dozens of fighters were killed or wounded, according to an anti-war investigator.
The Syrian state news agency, SANA, said the strikes hit areas in and near the cities of Deir el-Zour, Mayadeen and Boukamal along the border with Iraq. An unnamed military officer was quoted as saying that Syrian air defenses responded to the incoming missiles. He gave no further details.
A war analyst against at least 18 strikes in Deir el-Zour and along the border with Iraq said several military bases had been hit.
Syrian air defenses include the alleged Israeli airstrike
(Photo: AFP)
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 40 people had been killed, including nine Syrian soldiers, and the rest were Iranian-backed fighters. He said 37 were injured.
“They fired jobs from Iran in Deir el-Zour,” said Omar Abu Laila, a European-based activist from the Deir el-Zour region of eastern Syria who runs a campaign group that reports news there. the border area. It listed at least 16 targeted buildings, warehouses or bases for Iranian, Lebanese and Iraqi militias in the cities of Boukamal, Mayadeen and Deir el-Zour.
The airfield on Iranian television
Israel has launched hundreds of strikes against Iranian-linked military targets in Syria over the years but seldom acknowledge or talk about such operations.
The Observatory said it recorded 39 Israeli strikes inside Syria in 2020 that hit 135 targets, including military posts, warehouses or vehicles. In those attacks, at least 217 people were killed, mostly Iranian soldiers, according to the Observatory.
The strikes come at a time when tensions are higher in the region in the last days of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.
Many fear they will retaliate against the assassination of U.S. leader Qassem Soleimani last year before Trump resigns, or that that conflict could explode into scuttle attempts by Joe Biden’s new administration to negotiate with Iran.
Iranian-backed militia waving Hezbollah and Syrian flags
(Photo: Archive)
Israel sees Iran’s entry on its northern border as a red line, and it has once again hit Iran-linked facilities and armed convoys expected for Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group.
The strikes also come amid intense Israeli low-level war missions in Lebanese skies that caused jitters among residents and forced Lebanon to file an urgent complaint to the UN about the break-ins. their air.
Israeli officials have said the transgressions are necessary because Hezbollah is defying the UN resolution 2006 which prevents it from building up its military capabilities and operating near the Israeli border.