Uptick in Israeli Airstrikes on Syria Due to Increase in Iranian Activity, Expert Says

Airstrike early Sunday in Syria’s Homs province attributed to Israel kills two Iranian Revolutionary Guard members, wounds five Syrian soldiers

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned Israel that it would pay a heavy price after airstrikes near the city of Homs killed two of its military advisors.

Five Syrian soldiers also were wounded in the strike early Sunday, Syria’s state news agency SANA reported.

“Today at around 00:35 (2135 GMT), the Israeli enemy carried out an air assault from northeast of Beirut targeting positions in the city of Homs and its province,” SANA reported Sunday citing a military source.

The strike was the third attributed to Israel since Thursday and came only a day after another attack on Friday that killed a Revolutionary Guard officer. The latest attack is the ninth time Israel reportedly has struck positions in Syria since the beginning of the year, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-linked war monitor.

Analysts say the increase in the frequency of attacks is meant to counter Tehran’s presence in the country.

SANA reported that Syria’s air defenses intercepted some of the missiles, although the “aggression” managed to injure five soldiers and caused “material losses.”

These attacks are usually in response to either deliveries of precise weapons either to Hizbullah or Iranian Shia militias or Iranian attempts to entrench itself in Syria

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said explosions rocked Homs at several sites including the Syrian military airport at al-Dabaa near the city. The group said the strikes targeted several Syrian military positions and pro-Iran groups.

The IRGC issued a statement vowing retaliation, pledging that: “Undoubtedly, the fake and criminal Zionist regime will receive a response to its heinous crime.”

While Israel seldom acknowledges that it carries out strikes on Syria, it has repeatedly said it will not allow its arch-foe Iran to extend its presence in the war-torn country.

Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu did not directly mention the strikes during a meeting of his Cabinet on Sunday, but said Israel is acting against foreign threats.

“We are exacting a high price from the regimes that support terrorism, beyond Israel’s borders. I suggest that our enemies not err,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu also said that the major domestic crisis over his government’s controversial plan to overhaul the judiciary has not affected Israel’s ability to attack.

“The internal argument in Israel doesn’t harm and won’t harm our determination or intensity or our capabilities to act against our enemies on all fronts, in any place and at any time necessary,” he said.

Professor Efraim Inbar, president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, told The Media Line that the uptick in attacks is attributed to intensified Iranian movement.

“The frequency has increased because of Iranian activity and our access to better intelligence,” Inbar said.

Inbar says Israel will do everything at its disposal to stop Iranian weapons deliveries, or to stop its “proxies from getting closer to the border.”

Dr. Raz Zimmt, an expert on Iranian affairs at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), told The Media Line that Israel is closely monitoring Iranian activity in Syria.

“These attacks are usually in response to either deliveries of precise weapons either to Hizbullah or Iranian Shia militias or Iranian attempts to entrench itself in Syria,” he explained.

Last week, an Israeli missile strike destroyed a suspected arms depot used by Iran-backed militias at Syria’s Aleppo airport, the war monitor said.

Last month, an alleged Israeli airstrike killed 15 people in a Damascus district that houses state security agencies, the Observatory said at the time.

Israeli observers downplayed the IRGC threats of retaliation, saying there is an ongoing war between the two countries.

“I would say there’s still an open equation between Israel and Iran and the fact two IRGC members were killed will create motivation for retaliation. But this is nothing new,” according to Zimmt.

Greece and Israel thwarted a planned terror attack on Jews in Greece last month. Its security forces arrested two men suspected of planning an attack against an Israeli restaurant in Athens, a case that Israel said was orchestrated by Iran.

Zimmt says Iran is trying to take advantage of current events and work under the radar.

“The Iranians increased efforts perhaps because of the circumstances with the earthquake or used the political crisis in Israel in order to expand its activities in Syria,” Zimmt said.

Iran claims that it maintains an advisory mission in Syria.

Dozens of Revolutionary Guard members including senior officers have been killed in Syria during the war.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside Syria in recent years, but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.