Israeli strikes on Syria intensify, raise tensions with Iran

BASSEM MROUE and JOSEF FEDERMAN Associated Press

BEIRUT — Suspected Israeli airstrikes in Syria in recent weeks killed two Iranian military advisers, temporarily put the country’s two largest airports out of service and raised fears of regional escalation.

While Israel has fought a shadow war with Iran in Syria for years, it intensified with near-daily airstrikes attributed to Israel by Syrian officials over the past week.

The escalation comes after what appears to be a rare infiltration by an armed man from Lebanon into Israel and Iran’s reconciliation with regional rival Saudi Arabia last month. It also comes against the backdrop of a major domestic crisis in Israel over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary system.

Israel, which vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment in Syria, carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of that country in recent years but rarely acknowledges them. Since the beginning of 2023, Syrian officials attributed 10 strikes on Syrian territory to Israel, including four airstrikes within five days as of Tuesday.

The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has had its own recent run-ins with Iranian forces in Syria. In late March, U.S. forces retaliated with airstrikes on sites in Syria used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard following a suspected Iran-linked drone attack that killed a U.S. contractor and wounded six other Americans in northeast Syria. An official with an Iranian-backed group in Iraq said the U.S. strikes killed seven Iranians.

The flareup between the U.S. and Iran did not escalate, but some fear the back-and-forth between Israel and Iran could.

<p>Journalists stand by a damaged medieval citadel  Feb. 19 after an early morning Israeli airstrike in the capital city of Damascus, Syria.</p>

Omar Sanadiki, Associated Press

Journalists stand by a damaged medieval citadel  Feb. 19 after an early morning Israeli airstrike in the capital city of Damascus, Syria.

Since the early years of Syria’s 12-year-old conflict, Iran deployed hundreds of military advisers and thousands of Iran-backed fighters from countries including Iraq and Lebanon who helped tip the balance of power in Syrian President Bashar Assad’s favor.

Israel considers Iran to be its top enemy, citing Iranian calls for Israel’s destruction, its support for anti-Israel militant groups like Hezbollah and its nuclear program. Israel and Western countries say Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapons — a charge Iran denies.

Iran blamed Israel for attacks on its territory, including the killings of some of its nuclear scientists and damage to nuclear installations.

The airstrikes in Syria reflect Israel’s concerns about fighters being deployed close to its northern border and fears that Iran is trying to transfer sophisticated weapons, such as guided missiles, to the terrorist militant group Hezbollah. Both Israel and Hezbollah have avoided an all-out war since their 34-day war in 2006 ended with a draw. Israel considers Hezbollah, which is believed to possess over 130,000 rockets and missiles, to be a major threat.

Hisham Jaber, a Lebanese military expert and former army general, said Iran has about 1,800 military advisers in Syria, most of them deployed with Syrian troops.

The increase in strikes on Syria began with a Jan. 2 attack that temporarily put the Damascus airport out of service, just after the most right-wing government in Israel’s 74-year history took office.

<p>People view the damage in a residential neighborhood Feb. 19 after an early morning Israeli airstrike in the capital city of Damascus, Syria.</p>

Omar Sanadiki, Associated Press

People view the damage in a residential neighborhood Feb. 19 after an early morning Israeli airstrike in the capital city of Damascus, Syria.

The strikes continued despite mass protests in Israel, including open disagreement between Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, over the government’s controversial plans for a judicial overhaul. At one point, Netanyahu fired Gallant for criticizing the plan, but backtracked and temporarily halted the push for the overhaul until parliament reconvenes in a month.

The two men have made a number of public appearances in recent days, alluding to military activity in Syria without overtly confirming it.

“We will not allow the Iranians and Hezbollah to harm us. We have not allowed it in the past, we won’t allow it now, or anytime in the future,” Gallant said this week. “When necessary, we will push them out of Syria to where they belong — and that is Iran.”

Jaber, however, said he believes the recent strikes will not turn into a full-blown conflict, in part because the U.S. — which is preoccupied with the ongoing war in Ukraine and its own tensions with China — would try to discourage a regional war.

Strikes attributed to Israel in Syria in recent weeks targeted both Iranian-linked figures and infrastructure. They hit the airports of Damascus and Aleppo, apparently intending to prevent the flow of arms shipments into Syria but disrupted aid shipments after the deadly Feb. 6 earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey.

An official with an Iran-backed group in the region warned that if Israel continues with the strikes, Tehran and its allies will retaliate. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted the Revolutionary Guard as saying that the killing of two Iranian advisers “will definitely not pass without retaliation.”

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