Iran attacked Israel from Syria without notifying Damascus – report

Times of Israel ^ | 10 May 2018, 10:40 pm | TOI staff

[Zhang Fei]

Iranian forces in Syria did not ask the Syrian government, or even notify Syrian leaders, before launching 20 missiles at Israel just after midnight on Thursday, Fox News reported.

“It appears that the regime of Bashar Assad of Syria wants to distance itself from Iran’s military activity in its very own back yard,” Fox News’s David Lee Miller reported from the Golan Heights on Thursday.

Miller said that Fox News had learn from European sources that, “The Iranian major general in charge of the Al-Quds Force in Syria, Qassem Soleimani, launched last night’s attack against Israel without the knowledge or the consent of the Assad regime.”

He went on to say that the Syrian claim came, “Despite the fact that some Syrian military personnel took part in the aggression.” It was not clear if he was referring to the rocket fire against Israel or the Syrian anti-aircraft fire that was later directed at the Israeli air force.

Sources told Fox News that the Soleimani was not accountable to Damascus and could act freely without having to report to Syrian officials.

The message from Syria may be a way of avoiding further retaliation from Israel.

Among the sites hit were Syrian air defenses, and Netanyahu said that was only because Assad had ignored his warning.

“Yesterday I conveyed a clear message to the Assad regime: Our activity is directed against Iranian targets in Syria. But if the Syrian army takes action against us, we will act against it,” Netanyahu warned. “That is exactly what happened yesterday, Syrian army batteries launched ground-to-air missiles against us, and therefore we hit them.”

The military earlier said it targeted a number of Syrian air defense systems — SA-5, SA-2, SA-22, and SA-17 batteries — that had fired at Israeli planes, despite the military’s ... warning

[Zhang Fei]

Whether Assad is Iran's hand puppet or he was trying to rack up brownie points with the Muslim world by participating in the rocket attacks on Israel, he is now on notice that any assets* he uses in defending the Iranian presence in Syria will be targeted. Israel will not allow its cities to be targeted the way Iran is lobbing ballistic missiles at Riyadh from Yemen's territory almost a thousand miles away.

* The principal cost to Assad is not mainly the handfuls of men he loses from those SAM batteries, but the $100m worth of equipment that just went up in smoke.

[robroys woman]

I believe Trump has given Israel carte blanche regarding Iran.

This could get interesting. What’s Iran doing there, anyway?

[DannyTN]

"What’s Iran doing there, anyway?"

Especially if the Iranian forces in Syria don't feell compelled to coordinate with Syria. Sounds like an invasion.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

What’s Iran doing there, anyway?

Bombing Israel.

[BenLurkin]

My guess: 1) close enough to the Israeli civilians that they can attack with cheaper short range missiles and 2) Iran figured it could hide behind the chaos in Syria to mask its culpability.

[Psalm 73]

Headline should have been: “Assad wets himself”

[RinaseaofDs]

If this is true, and Israel showed restraint on Syrian assets, then this may be something you can leverage in a resolution of matters.

[MeganC]

“What’s Iran doing there, anyway?”

The same thing that the USA, UK, Turkey, and Russia are doing in Syria: advancing their own interests.

[Democrats hate too much]

I wonder if that was a part of the Obama plan.

[kabar]

What’s Iran doing there, anyway?

What is the US doing there without the permission of the Syrian government? We have 2,000 personnel on the ground in Syria and have been bombing there on almost a daily basis since Sept 22, 2014.

[Zhang Fei]

“The same thing that the USA, UK, Turkey, and Russia are doing in Syria: advancing their own interests.”

---

Not the same thing at all. No one is launching armed drones or firing missiles at Iran from Syria’s territory.

[Zhang Fei]

“What is the US doing there without the permission of the Syrian government? We have 2,000 personnel on the ground in Syria and have been bombing there on almost a daily basis since Sept 22, 2014.”

---

Bombing ISIS, which is launching attacks on the US from Syria’s territory. And whose commanders, before they formed ISIS, were responsible for thousands of US casualties in Iraq. Mexico couldn’t or wouldn’t control Pancho Villa, so we entered Mexico and went after him ourselves.

[nuconvert]

The puppeteer(Iran) doesn’t have to ask permission from the puppet

[nuconvert]

“advancing their own interests.”

As if the interests of the U.S. are somehow equatable with those of Iran, Turkey & Russia?

[Magnum44]

Sorry, but there is no equivalency between what Iran is doing in Syria and what we are doing there.

[Sasparilla]

Iran only answers to Baal and Dagon. Better known as Satan today.

[SENTINEL]

Isaiah 17...

[kabar]

I understand why we are there. My response was to another poster who asked what Iran was doing there. The Iranians were invited in by the Syrian government, just like the Russians. We were not invited in nor were other allied countries.

With the defeat of ISIS in Syria, the real question is what will happen with the US presence in Syria now that ISIS has been virtually eliminated. Will the US go after the Syrian regime, whom we have now bombed twice due to their use of poison gas against their people. Is regime change part of our mission?

The question of what we are doing there will become a topic of increasing interest. The UK, France, and others want the US to maintain a continuing presence in Syria. It is our blood and treasure being spilled there.

[Zhang Fei]

“My response was to another poster who asked what Iran was doing there. The Iranians were invited in by the Syrian government, just like the Russians. We were not invited in nor were other allied countries.”

---

I hear you. But that’s a lot like asking what we were doing in Germany, which never attacked us and obviously never invited us in. You mess with the bull, you get the horns. Between Syria’s involvement in the deaths of 200+ Marine peacekeepers in Lebanon, the harboring and sponsorship of terrorist movements (DFLP, PFLP, PLO, et al) that killed dozens of Americans and the sponsorship of terrorists in Iraq that killed thousands of GI’s, we’d be amply justified in toppling Syria’s Baathist government.

[butlerweave]

I think the Iranian phones lines are Dead now anyway