BEIRUT (AP) – Israeli warplanes carried out intense airstrikes on eastern Syria early Wednesday, apparently targeting positions and weapons depots of the Iran-backed forces. Dozens of fighters were killed or wounded, according to an opposition war monitor.
A senior U.S. intelligence official with knowledge of the attack told The Associated Press that the airstrikes were carried out with information provided by the United States – a rare occurrence of cooperation between the two countries over the choice of targets in Syria. The official said the strikes were aimed at a series of warehouses in Syria used in a pipeline to store and set up Iranian weapons.
The U.S. official, who asked for anonymity to speak on sensitive national security issues, said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday launched the airstrike with Yossi Cohen, head of Israel’s spy agency Mossad, during a public hearing on Tuesday. meeting in the popular Washington restaurant Café Milano.
The official said the warehouses also serve as a pipeline for components that support Iran’s nuclear program.
Syria’s state news agency, SANA, said the strikes hit areas in and near the towns of Deir el-Zour, Mayadeen and Boukamal along the border with Iraq. An unnamed military official quoted Syrian air defenses as responding to the incoming missiles. It gave no further details.
An opposition war monitor has reported at least 18 attacks in Deir el-Zour and along the border with Iraq, saying several weapons depots have been hit. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in Britain, 23 people were killed, including seven Syrians, and the rest were fighters backed by Iran. It is said that 28 were wounded.
“They have burned Iranian positions in Deir el-Zour,” said Omar Abu Laila, an activist from the Syrian eastern province of Deir el-Zour, who runs an activist collective that reports on news in the border area. He occupied at least 16 targeted buildings, warehouses or bases for Iranian, Lebanese and Iraqi militias in the cities of Boukamal, Mayadeen and Deir el-Zour.
Israel has launched hundreds of strikes over the years against military targets related to Iran, but rarely recognizes such operations.
The Observatory said it had recorded 39 Israeli attacks in Syria in 2020 that hit 135 targets, including military posts, warehouses or vehicles. According to the Observatory, at least 217 people were killed in the attacks, mostly militarily with Iranian affiliation.
The strikes come at a time of heightened tensions in the region in the last days of President Donald Trump’s administration.
Many fear that retaliation for the US assassination of Iranian Commander Qassem Soleimani last year may come before Trump leaves office, or that conflict could erupt to undermine the efforts of Joe Biden’s incoming government to negotiate with Iran.
Israel views the Iranian fortification at its northern border as a red line, and they have repeatedly hit Iran-linked facilities and arms convoys destined for Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group.
The strikes also come amid intensifying Israeli warplane missions in Lebanese clouds that have caused low-rise residents and prompted Lebanon to lodge an urgent complaint with the UN over violations of its airspace. Israeli officials said the overlap was necessary because Hezbollah violated the 2006 UN resolution that barred him from building his military capabilities and working near the Israeli border.
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Associated Press author James LaPorta in Delray Beach, Florida, reported.