Israeli strikes in Syria said to kill at least 23, 18 of them foreigners



Israeli strikes on several areas of Syria overnight killed at least 23 fighters, including five Syrian regime troops and 18 other allied forces, a monitor said Thursday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the regime troops killed in the strikes included an officer, adding that the other casualties included Syrians and foreigners.
It didn’t say whether any Iranians were among the foreigner casualties.


Some 20 rockets were fired at northern Israeli military bases by Iranian forces from southern Syria just after midnight, Israel said, prompting extensive retaliatory raids. The Israel Defense Forces said that it suffered no casualties, either on the ground or in the air, and that no rockets fired from Syria made impact in Israeli territory.
Russia’s defense ministry said Israel’s strikes on Syria saw 28 planes take part in raids with a total of around 70 missiles fired.
“28 Israeli F-15 and F-16 aircraft were used in the attack, which released around 60 air-to-ground missiles over various parts of Syria. Israel also fired more than 10 tactical ground-to-ground missiles,” the ministry said in a statement quoted by the Interfax news agency.



The IDF said it had hit dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria overnight.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said that the IDF had destroyed “nearly all” of Iran’s military infrastructure sites in Syria.
Four of the 20 projectiles launched by Iranian troops at Israel were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system and the rest fell in Syria, IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus said. The rockets included both Grad and Fajr-5 models, according to the military.
The IDF said the initial missile barrage was launched by members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ al-Quds Force. It appeared to be the first time Israel attributed an attack directly to Iran, which generally operates through proxies.
In all, the army said it carried out approximately 50 retaliatory raids against IRGC targets, including intelligence centers, weapons depots, storage facilities, observation posts, and logistics centers in Syria, as well as the rocket launcher that carried out the initial attack.
The overnight exchange was the largest-ever direct clash between the Iranian and Israeli militaries, and appeared to be the largest exchange involving Israel in Syria since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
The military said it also 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 Arabic-language spokesperson explicitly warning earlier that “any Syrian involvement will be met with the utmost severity.”
In the days and weeks before the Iranian barrage, defense officials repeatedly warned that Israel would respond aggressively to any attack from Syrian territory.

Tehran has repeatedly vowed revenge after the T-4 army base in Syria was struck in an air raid — widely attributed to Israel — on April 9, killing at least seven members of the IRGC, including a senior officer responsible for the group’s drone program.










Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said Thursday morning that the IDF had destroyed “nearly all” of Iran’s military infrastructure sites in Syria overnight in response to a rocket barrage on Israel’s north, and warned Tehran that attacks on Israeli territory will be met with “the strongest possible force.”
In his first public comments following the strikes on dozens of targets that the IDF said were affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ al-Quds Force, Liberman said that Israel has no interest in escalating tensions but will not accept any provocation against it.
“If we get rain, you will get a flood,” he warned Iran, speaking at an annual Herzliya Conference. “We will not let Iran use Syria as a base to attack us from.”

“The Iranians tried to attack the sovereign territory of Israel,” Liberman said. “Not one Iranian rocket landed in the State of Israel. Nobody was hurt. Nothing was damaged. And we’re to be thankful for that. We damaged nearly all of the Iranian infrastructure in Syria.”

But he added, “It’s not a stunning victory. Everything’s limited at the moment to a confrontation between us and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Syria. Everyone wants to limit this confrontation and keep it in this form.”

Liberman stressed that Israel had no interested in an escalation but that Iranian provocation met with force.


”We are not trying to aggravate or create a new front. The ones constantly trying to spread and build more proxies are Iran. We see them acting everywhere,” he said. “Iran is trying to create a new front with us. We will not let them use Syria as a base to attack us from.”

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan warned Iran that Israel is “not playing and not bluffing.
“Tonight, we conveyed an important message to Iran and to the Assad regime: a message of determination and strength,” Erdan tweeted.
“Israel will not cease to act against Iranian forces in Syria and will not forgive any attempt to attack the [Israeli] citizens of the north.







The Israeli army said Thursday morning that it set back Iranian military capabilities in Syria by “many months” with overnight strikes on “dozens” of targets affiliated with the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps’ al-Quds Force following an attempted large-scale rocket attack on Israeli territory.
The Israel Defense Forces said that it suffered no casualties, either on the ground or in the air, and that no rockets fired from Syria made impact in Israeli territory
“All of our planes returned home safely,” the army said.

IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus stressed that Israel was not seeking an escalation of hostilities with Tehran, after some 20 rockets were fired at Israeli military bases by Iranian forces from southern Syria just after midnight, prompting extensive Israeli retaliatory raids.

The IDF said the initial missile barrage was launched by members of the IRGC’s al-Quds Force. It appeared to be the first time Israel attributed an attack directly to Iran, which generally operates through proxies.

The overnight exchange was the largest-ever direct clash between the Iranian and Israeli militaries, and appeared to be the largest exchange involving Israel in Syria since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.










Russia and France on Thursday called for a calming of tensions after Israel struck dozens of Iranian-affiliated targets in Syria following a missile attack on the Golan Heights overnight Wednesday.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov appealed for a lowering of tensions between Jerusalem and Tehran, the Tass Russian news agency reported, and said Moscow was “concerned” by the situation.
“We have established contacts with all parties and we call for restraint from all parties,” he said. “It’s very worrying and a source of concern. We have to work to ease the tension.”

The Russian defense ministry claimed that Syria’s air defenses had managed to shoot down more than half of the missiles fired by Israel. It said that the Israeli strikes were conducted by 28 fighter jets.

IDF spokesman Jonathan Cornicus confirmed Thursday that Israel had given Russia prior notice of its intentions to attack Syria via a de-conflicting mechanism between the two countries that has been in place since 2015.

“I told President Putin that it is our right and indeed our duty to take any steps required to safeguard our security interests,” the prime minister told reporters in a telephone briefing from Moscow airport, minutes before taking off en route back to Tel Aviv.
Also on Thursday, Germany condemned the attack the night before on Israel’s Golan Heights, stressing the Jewish state’s right to defend itself. At the same time, Berlin said it was important not to let the situation escalate.


“We note reports of Iranian rocket attacks on Israeli military bases with great concern,” a spokesperson for Germany’s Foreign Ministry said. “These attacks are a serious provocation that we strongly condemn. As we have always emphasized, Israel has a right to self-defense.

“At the same time, it is crucial that there is no further escalation,” the spokesperson said. “In particular, this means that we must do everything we can to finally achieve a lasting political solution to the Syrian conflict — to end the suffering of the Syrian people, but also so as not to jeopardize stability in the entire region.“