Israel in major strikes on Tehran targets in Syria after rocket fire

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France warns Iran against military provocation

JERUSALEM, May 10, (AFP): Israel carried out widespread deadly raids against what it said were Iranian targets in Syria on Thursday after rocket fire towards its forces which it blamed on Iran, marking a sharp escalation between the two enemies.

The incident came after weeks of rising tensions and followed US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from a key 2015 Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday, a move Israel had long advocated. It led to immediate calls for restraint from Russia, France and Germany.

“The escalation of the last hours shows us that it’s really about war and peace,” warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The raids that a monitor said killed 23 fighters were one of the largest Israeli military operations in recent years and the biggest such assault on Iranian targets, the military said.

“We hit nearly all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria,” Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman told a security conference. “I hope we’ve finished this episode and everyone understood.”

Israel carried out the raids after it said 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight. It blamed the rocket fire on Iran’s Al-Quds force, adding that Israel’s anti-missile system intercepted four while the rest did not land in its territory. No Israelis were wounded.

If confirmed, the incident would be the first time Iran had sought to directly attack Israelicontrolled territory aside from an alleged attempted drone attack in February. “We know that comes from the Al-Quds force,” army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus said, referring to the special forces unit affiliated with Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said dozens of rockets were fired from Syria towards the Israeli-occupied Golan, but did not confirm they were fired by Iranian forces. It alleged the rockets followed a “first Israeli bombardment on the town of Baath” in Quneitra province.

A senior pro-regime military source in Syria confirmed the salvo of rockets, insisting that Israel had fired first. Later, in the early hours of the morning, explosions were heard in Damascus, while live images were broadcast on television showing projectiles above the Syrian capital and several missiles destroyed by anti-aircraft systems.

Syrian state media reported that Israeli missile strikes had hit military bases as well as an comarms depot and a military radar installation, without specifying the locations. The official SANA news agency added that “dozens of missiles were shot down by anti-aircraft systems in Syrian airspace,” acknowledging a number of missiles had reached their targets. Israel’s military later confirmed it had carried out the raids, saying some 70 targets had been struck and all of its aircraft had returned safely.

The army’s Conricus said intelligence, logistics and storage facilities and vehicles were targeted as well as the origin of the rockets. Syrian air defences, which fired dozens of times on Israeli forces, were also targeted, he said. There had been no comment from Iranian officials. Lieberman called the rocket fire “a new phase”. “We don’t want an escalation, but won’t let anyone attack us or build an infrastructure to attack us in the future,” he said.

Russia’s defence ministry said 28 Israeli F-15 and F-16 planes took part in the raids with a total of around 70 missiles fired. “My husband went out on to the balcony and saw the air defences,” said 27-year-old Rim, adding she and her family were awakened at their home in a western suburb of Damascus by the raids.

Israel has long warned that it will not accept Iran entrenching itself militarily in neighbouring Syria, where Tehran is supporting President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in the country’s seven-year civil war. Israel has been blamed for a series of recent strikes inside Syria that have killed Iranians, though it did not acknowledge those raids. It does acknowledge carrying out dozens of raids in Syria to stop what it says are advanced arms deliveries to Iran-backed Hezbollah, another key foe of Israel.

Israel had been preparing itself for weeks for possible Iranian retaliation. Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal has added to tensions and led to a new level of uncertainty over how Iran will respond. On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country has provided massive military and diplomatic backing to Assad’s regime.

“I told President Putin that it is the right of every state, certainly the right of Israel, to take the necessary steps in order to protect itself from this aggression,” Netanyahu said in a statement, referring to Iran’s presence in Syria. Israel and Russia have established a hotline to avoid accidental clashes in the war-torn country.

Russia was informed in advance of Israel’s strikes on Thursday, Conricus said. In February, Israel accused Iranian forces at the T-4 base in central Syria of sending a drone into Israeli territory. After targeting Iranian units in Syria in retaliation, an Israeli F-16 was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft fire. Israel, which said the drone it downed had been armed, carried out what it called “large-scale” raids on Syrian air defence systems and Iranian targets in the country. Netanyahu said Iran had crossed a “red line” by firing rockets at Israeli forces from Syria, leading to major Israeli air strikes on Thursday in the neighbouring country.

“Iran has crossed a red line. Our reaction was a consequence,” the Israeli leader said in a video posted on social media. “The Israeli army carried out an extensive attack against Iranian targets in Syria.” Iran has not claimed responsibility for the rocket fire.

France warns Iran France on Thursday called on Iran to refrain from “any military provocation” in Syria following a series of Israeli strikes on what it said were Iranian positions in the country. A foreign ministry spokesman also warned Tehran “against any temptation for regional dominance”, a matter that French Foreign Minister Jean- Yves Le Drian would address in talks with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif next week.

The Israeli strikes in Syria come just days after US President Donald Trump withdrew from a key 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, in part because it does not attempt to curb Tehran’s role in several crises in the Middle East. Tehran has portrayed itself as the focus of Middle East “resistance” against Israel, which said it struck the Syria sites in retaliation for rocket fire it blamed on Iran’s Al-Quds force. The foreign ministry reiterated France’s “unwavering support for Israel’s security and condemns all attempts to harm it.” He also called for “restraint by all sides in order to avoid a dangerous escalation of tensions in the Middle East.

“That is why, as the president has said, it hopes in particular to begin talks with Iran over a larger framework that would encompass its nuclear activities as well as its ballistic missile programme and a solution to crises in the region,” it said. Iran is backing the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in his seven-year civil war against rebel opposition groups, and is also supporting Shiite militia forces in Iraq. UN experts have also accused Iran of violating an arms embargo in Yemen by sending missiles and other weaponry to Houthi rebels fighting government forces backed by Saudi Arabia, Tehran’s archrival in the region.

Bahrain’s foreign minister, Sheikh Khalid al-Khalifa, on Thursday backed Israel’s right to “defend itself” after the Israeli military said it struck dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria overnight. “As long as Iran has breached the status quo in the region and invaded countries with its forces and missiles, any state in the region, including Israel, is entitled to defend itself by destroying sources of danger,” the minister, whose country is a close ally of Saudi Arabia, said on his Twitter account. Since the start of Syria’s civil war in 2011, Israel has repeatedly targeted positions of the Syrian army and Lebanon’s Shiite movement Hezbollah backing it inside the country.

The latest escalation came overnight, when Israel’s army said it hit dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria. Israel carried out the raids after it said 20 rockets were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight. It blamed the rocket fire on Iran’s Quds force.

Syria’s foreign ministry said the Israeli attacks on its territory marked a “new phase” of direct involvement in the country’s seven-year conflict. Syria has had strained relations with most of the Arab world since launching a deadly crackdown on demonstrators in March 2011 and was eventually suspended from the Arab League. But the Bahraini foreign minister’s support for the Israeli strikes marks a rare, if not unprecedented public stance by an Arab government. Bahrain is a close ally of Saudi Arabia and the two countries, whose foreign policies are often in lockstep, view Iran as the chief threat to the region.

Washington on Thursday condemned Iran for rocket fire targeting Israeli forces in the occupied Golan Heights, and voiced its “strong support” for Israel’s right to retaliate in “self-defense.” Israel has blamed Iran for the rocket attacks, and hit back Thursday with deadly raids against what it said were Iranian targets in Syria.

“The United States condemns the Iranian regime’s provocative rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli citizens, and we strongly support Israel’s right to act in self-defense,” said a White House statement. The rocket attack in the Golan Heights and the retaliatory Israeli air strikes marked a sharp escalation in the mounting tensions between Iran and Israel.

It came two days after President Donald Trump, ignoring the advice of his European allies, announced that the United States was withdrawing from a 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran. The Israeli military said its warplanes struck 70 targets inside Syria, one of the biggest such operations in years.

A British-based human rights monitor said 23 fighters were killed. Russia, France and Germany called for restraint, insisting there be no further escalation. The US statement, however, laid the blame squarely on Iran and urged “all nations to make clear that the Iranian regime’s action pose a severe threat to international peace and stability.”

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