BEIRUT (AP) – Israeli airstrikes in Syria in recent weeks have killed two Iranian military advisers and temporarily closed two of the country’s largest airports, raising fears of regional escalation.
Israel has been waging a shadow war with Iran in Syria for years, but it has recently intensified, with Syrian officials attributing near-daily airstrikes to Israel over the past week.
The escalation of attacks comes after a seemingly rare incursion into Israel by gunmen from Lebanon and Iran’s reconciliation with regional rival Saudi Arabia last month. It is also in the midst of a major crisis within Israel over the judicial reform plan of the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel, which has vowed to stop Iranian trenches in neighboring Syria, has launched hundreds of strikes against targets in the country’s government-controlled areas in recent years, but has rarely admitted to doing so. Since early 2023, Syrian authorities have credited Israel with 10 attacks on Syrian territory, including four airstrikes in five days starting Tuesday.
However, Jaber said he believed the recent attacks would not escalate into a full-blown conflict.
Israeli attacks in Syria in recent weeks have targeted individuals linked to Iran as well as infrastructure.
They hit airports in Damascus and Aleppo, apparently aimed at stemming the flow of arms shipments to Syria, following the deadly February 6 earthquake that hit Syria and Turkey. It is also intended to interfere with aid shipments. On February 19, the first reported Israeli attack after the earthquake targeted residential areas in the Syrian capital Damascus, killing at least five people and injuring 15. He said he was targeting the militias he supported.
In mid-March, the Israeli army said its soldiers had killed a gunman suspected of blowing up a car after entering from Lebanon. The incident in which an Israeli was injured upset the Israelis. Authorities suspect the man was smuggled from Lebanon and may have been sent directly from Hezbollah or Iran.
Days after the alleged infiltration, the commander of a Palestinian extremist Islamic Jihad group was shot dead outside his home near Damascus. The group described an assassination attempt by Israeli operatives.
Last Tuesday, Netanyahu said Israeli Mossad intelligence services helped Greece prevent planned terrorist attacks on at least one Jewish site in Athens. Two men said they had been arrested on suspicion of planning an attack on a Jewish center.
Two advisers to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed in an Israeli attack on the southern outskirts of Damascus on Friday. Hours later, the Israeli Air Force shot down a drone entering Israel from Syria, claiming Iran was behind its launch.
Yoel Guzansky, an Iranian expert and senior fellow at the Institute for National Security, a Tel Aviv think tank, said Israel’s stepped up measures in recent weeks were in response to the recent alleged invasion from Lebanon. Â
Guzansky said Iran rarely acknowledged the deaths of its officers and advisers as quickly as after Friday’s attacks. He said a quick public confirmation could possibly indicate “retaliating or responding to Israeli attacks” on Israelis abroad.
Iran’s semi-official news agency Tasnim quoted the IRGC as saying the killing of his two Iranian advisers “definitely will not go without retribution.”
