One target of an alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria on July 1, 2019. (photo credit: IMAGESAT INTERNATIONAL (ISI))
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Syria accused Israel of “state terrorism” after alleged Israeli airstrikes on Monday targeting Iranian military positions killed 15 people, including six civilians, and warned that it would change how it responds to future airstrikes.
“Israeli authorities are increasingly practicing state terrorism,” Syria’s foreign ministry was quoted as saying by SANA news agency, adding that “the latest heinous Israeli aggression falls within the framework of ongoing Israeli attempts to prolong the crisis in Syria.”
Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad also warned that “we will change the way we will respond in the future.
The Syrian government also filed a complaint against Israel at the United Nations Security Council, calling the strikes “dangerous and hostile.”
“Syria underlines that Israel continuation in its dangerous hostile method would never have been done except by the unlimited support offered by the US administration in particular and the immunity from punishment presented by it and known countries at the Security Council,”the Ministry said.
According to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) nine Syrian and foreign pro-government militia members were killed in the predawn hours of Monday as well as six civilians including an infant. Another 21 people were reported to have been injured which struck targets around the capital of Damascus, Homs as well as the Syrian border with Lebanon.
SOHR said the several Hezbollah fighters were killed in the strikes which targeted Iranian-linked bases near Homs and at least 10 targets near Damascus including Jamraya scientific research institute, arms depots belonging to Hezbollah near the Syrian-Lebanese border, a research center in Homs and an airbase south of Homs that is used by Iran and Hezbollah.
A satellite picture released by the Israeli intelligence firm ImageSat Intl. (ISI) showed that a target at theJamraya institute was a hanger which was ““probably used for storage of advanced weapon systems or another sensitive element which required the mentioned accurate strike.”
ISI added that “according to media reports the attacked sites is related to Hezbollah and Iran.”
According to reports the airstrikes on Monday where the largest attacks attributed to Israel in recent years and likely targeted a supply chain of advanced weapons from Iran to Hezbollah through Syria to Lebanon.
Speaking on Monday at an annual conference on national security, Mossad Chief Yossi Cohen, said that Israel had “no interest in a conflict with Syria, but we will not accept Iran’s entrenchment against us in Syria or for Syria to serve as a logistics base for Iran to transport weaponry to Lebanon.”
Israel has been carrying out airstrikes in the war-torn country against Hezbollah and Iranian targets and is believed to have targeted the facility in the past, with the first reported strike on the center in 2013, 2017 and the most recent in February 2018.
Israeli officials have repeatedly voiced concerns over Iran’s entrenchment in Syria and the smuggling of sophisticated weaponry to Hezbollah from Tehran to Lebanon via Syria, stressing that both are red-lines for the Jewish State and that it will continue to operate when necessary.
Due to these strikes, Israel has noticed a reduction in weapons shipments, a decrease of funds available to Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Qud’s Force Commander Qassem Soleimani for his project in Syria and a decline in militia fighters in the war-torn country.
Iran has also began moving its assets from areas repeatedly struck by Israel to locations closer to the border with Iraq and to northern Syria.
According to a recent report by SOHR, Hezbollah has also begun to withdraw large numbers of troops from the Damascus area as well as southern Syria. SOHR quoted local sources as saying that the group pulled its troops from the Zabadani region west of Damascus.
Nevertheless Hezbollah still has a large presence west of the town of Qarah, located near the Lebanese border between Damascus and Homs.
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