Israeli fighter bombers have attacked government soil in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor during the early hours of Wednesday. According to testimonies, the bombs’ targets included several positions controlled by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and its allied forces, deployed in Syria at the request of President Bashar Assad. Its anti-aircraft defenses were insufficient to repel the bombardment, which according to opposition sources left dozens dead and wounded.Although these types of attacks have become relatively routine, the magnitude, the place and, above all, their publicity are entirely new, in a context of tension between Iran and the United States, engaged in a campaign to obstruct any diplomatic exercise proposed by Joe Biden. In fact, in a rare gesture, a US intelligence source confirmed to the Associated Press (AP) that Washington had provided information to Israel about the positions attacked.
These are located in Abu Kamal and its surroundings, an area on the border with Iraq in which, according to numerous reports, Iran has spent years designing an intricate system of bases and arsenals that allow it to ensure a kind of ‘land bridge’ between its country and Lebanon . A complementary strategy to its military efforts to sustain the Syrian Rais, and which have allowed it to extend its influence throughout the region, confronting the interests of the United States and some of its partners, particularly the Israelis.The official Syrian agency SANA has published that the results of the aggression are being verified. Several photos shared on social media show entire buildings expired. The AP indicates that the aerial bombardments targeted several “warehouses in Syria that were being used as a conduit to store and mount Iranian weapons.” Other reports speak of attacks on military bases, including that of the Fatemiyun militia, a Shiite force of Afghans recruited by Tehran.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition media that reports on the basis of activists on the ground and whose credibility has been questioned occasionally during the Syrian war, has counted 18 attacks during the early morning, some on the same border with Iraq. His balance is 23 dead, seven of them Syrian and the rest combatants under Iranian orders. During 2020, he adds, the Israelis carried out 39 attacks, hitting 135 targets on Syrian soil.These attacks come just days after many Beirut residents criticized the roar of Israeli fighters flying at very low altitudes, in a series of maneuvers that the Hebrews have not explained. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source quoted by AP refers to a decision made during a coffee that the Secretary of State of the United States, Mike Pompeo, and Yossi Cohen, head of the Mosad, took last Monday in Washington.
According to various media reports in recent months, Israel has tried to recruit several countries in the region to attack Iran, just when Tehran, aware of Joe Biden’s willingness to dialogue, had opted for its strategy of ‘strategic patience’, awaiting the end of the Trump era. Donald Trump himself opted to attack an Iranian nuclear site, but was deterred. The Israelis found no support for such a coup, but Iran accuses them of assassinating nuclear scientist Mohsen Fajrizadé in November,Tehran has promised “revenge” for this attack, and has responded to such challenges by renouncing new commitments to the nuclear deal, which Biden says he wants to refloat, although without detailing the conditions. Thus, the swords remain high, with the Iranians acknowledging their lack of confidence in the US Presidency. In this context, Israel, which has insisted that it will not allow the Iranians to entrench themselves in Syria, near its borders, has launched one of the largest attacks against that country.
