Jerusalem – Israel said its warplanes carried out a “very intense” attackagainst Iranian forces and Syrian army targets in Syria Wednesday, in raidsa monitoring group reported killed at least 23 people.
In a rare confirmation of their operations in Syria, the Israeli army saidthey had carried out dozens of strikes against the Iranian elite Quds Forceand the Syrian military, in response to four rockets fired at Israel a daybefore.
Britain-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights(SOHR) said 23 people were killed in the strikes — 21 fighters and twocivilians.
Sixteen were non-Syrian fighters, the group’s head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Iran has fought alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in thecountry’s eight-year civil war, heightening Israeli concern over thepresence of its arch foe along its border.
“Whoever hurts us, we will hurt him,” Israeli Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu said in a statement.
“This is what we did overnight vis-a-vis military targets of the IranianQuds Force and Syrian military targets in Syria after a barrage of rocketswas launched at Israel.”
The Israeli army said they had targeted about a dozen military sites,including warehouses and military command centres.
“It was very intense,” spokesman Jonathan Conricus told AFP.
The most important target, he said, was a control facility at the maininternational airport in Damascus.
“It is the main building that serves the (Iranian) Revolutionary Guards…for coordinating the logistic facilities of transport of military hardwarefrom Iran to Syria and from Syria onwards,” he said.
– ‘Heavy attack’ –
Israel has carried out frequent air and missile strikes against Iraniantargets inside Syria since the country descended into civil war in 2011,but rarely comments on them.
On Tuesday, four rockets were fired at Israel from Syria, with the armyblaming an “Iranian force”.
Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system intercepted the rockets.
Conricus said it was the sixth time Iranian forces had tried to attackIsrael directly in recent years, most recently in August.
The Israeli attack Wednesday began in the early hours, with a series oflarge explosions rocking Damascus, an AFP correspondent in the city said.
Syria’s state news agency SANA said Syrian anti-aircraft defences respondedto a “heavy attack” by Israeli warplanes over the capital.
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The Israeli army confirmed missiles were fired towards its jets but deniedany were hit.
In response to the fire, it said, “a number of Syrian aerial defencebatteries were destroyed”.
“We hold the Syrian regime responsible for the actions that take place inSyrian territory and warn them against allowing further attacks againstIsrael,” the army said.
SANA added that the strikes were carried out from “Lebanese and Palestinianterritories”. Israel sometimes launches attacks on Syria from planes flyingover neighbouring Lebanon.
Syria’s civil war has been complicated by the involvement of multipleforeign powers, with Russian, Iranian and US forces on the ground backingvarious parties.
Russia, which has backed Assad’s regime militarily, condemned the Israeliattack.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov was quoted by TASS newsagency as saying the operation “totally contradicts international law”.
“We are going to examine the circumstances, all this is very bad,” he added.
– Flare-up –
The Observatory said Tuesday’s rockets were fired from positions around theSyrian capital held by groups loyal to the Damascus government.
The flare-up follows a major escalation in and around the Palestinianenclave of Gaza last week when Israel killed a top commander of militantgroup Islamic Jihad, which is allied with Damascus.
The killing was accompanied by a second strike, unconfirmed by Israel, onan Islamic Jihad leader in Damascus that killed his son and another person,according to SANA.
The hundreds of strikes Israel has carried out in Syria have mostly beenagainst Iranian targets or positions of Iran’s Lebanese ally, Shiitemilitant group Hezbollah.
Both are sworn enemies of the Jewish state and have backed the Syrianpresident’s forces.
The war in Syria has killed more than 370,000 people and displacedmillions. -APP / AFP
