Beirut (AP) – Israeli warplanes carried out intense air strikes in eastern Syria on Wednesday morning, apparently targeting positions and arms depots of Iran-backed forces. Dozens of fighters were killed or injured, according to a monitor opposition war.
A senior US intelligence official with knowledge of the attack told the Associated Press that the air strikes were carried out with intelligence provided by the United States – a rare incidence of cooperation reported between the two countries in targeting Syria. The official said the attacks targeted a series of warehouses in Syria that were being used in a pipeline to store and prepare Iranian weapons.
The American official, who requested anonymity to speak on sensitive national security issues, said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed Tuesday’s air raid with Yossi Cohen, head of Israeli spy agency Mossad, at a public meeting in the popular Café Milano restaurant in Washington on Monday.
The official said the deposits also served as a pipeline for components that support the Iranian nuclear program.
Syrian state news agency SANA said the attacks hit areas close to the cities of Deir el-Zour, Mayadeen and Boukamal along the border with Iraq. An unidentified military officer was quoted as saying that Syria’s air defenses responded to approaching missiles. He gave no further details.
An opposition war monitor reported at least 18 attacks on Deir el-Zour and along the border with Iraq, saying that several arms depots had been hit. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in Britain, said 23 people were killed, including seven Syrians, and the rest were Iranian-backed fighters. He said 28 were wounded.
“They burned Iranian positions in Deir el-Zour,” said Omar Abu Laila, a Europe-based activist from the eastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour, who runs a collective of activists reporting news in the border area. He registered at least 16 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 attacks against Iranian-linked military targets in Syria over the years, but it rarely recognizes or discusses such operations.
The Observatory said it registered 39 Israeli attacks inside Syria in 2020, which hit 135 targets, including military posts, warehouses or vehicles. In those attacks, at least 217 people were killed, most of them militant allies in Iran, according to the Observatory.
The strikes came at a time of great tension in the region in the last days of President Donald Trump’s administration.
Many fear that the retaliation for the death of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in the U.S. last year could come before Trump leaves office, or that the conflict could erupt to disrupt the efforts of Joe Biden’s new government to negotiate with Iran.
Israel views Iran’s entrenchment on its northern border as a red line, and has repeatedly attacked Iran-linked facilities and arms convoys targeted at Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group.
The attacks also occurred amid intensified missions of Israeli low-altitude warplanes in Lebanese skies, which caused nervousness among residents and led Lebanon to file an urgent complaint to the UN about violations of its airspace. Israeli officials said overflights are necessary because Hezbollah is violating the 2006 UN resolution that prevents it from increasing its military capabilities and operating near the Israeli border.
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Associated Press editor James LaPorta in Delray Beach, Florida contributed to the report.