Updates From The Middle East: Rumors Of War And The Beginnings Of War

Israeli Attacks on Syria: What Is Known So Far?

…the Pentagon has supported Israel’s right to defend itself against threats to its national security:

"Israel is our [US] closest security partner in the region and we [ the US] fully support Israel's inherent right to defend itself against threats to its territory and its people," Pentagon spokesman Adrian Rankine-Galloway said.

Netanyahu, for his part, said that Israel had the right to self-defense, and stressed that Moscow and Tel Aviv agreed "coordination between our armies would continue."

"Israel wants peace but we will continue to defend ourselves with determination against any attack on us and against any attempt by Iran to entrench itself militarily in Syria or anywhere else," he said.

The US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that the United States considered the incident on the Israeli-Syrian border Iran's "calculated escalation."

Damascus accused Tel Aviv of cooperating with terrorist groups, claiming that Israel “posed a threat to global security and peace on par with Daesh (ISIS) and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra).

"The Syrian government once again warns Israel about the dangerous consequences of its attacks against the [Syrian] republic, and once again demands that the UNSC condemn these blatant attacks and take decisive and immediate action to stop these attacks and bring Israel to justice," the ministry declared.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry also penned a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and another to the UN Security Council.

"Israeli attacks are a continuation of an aggressive and dangerous approach by Israel aimed at supporting terrorist groups, which helps the latter to prolong the crisis in Syria and raises their morale, which sunk due to the gains made by the Syrian army and its allies," the letters said.

Preparing for war in the north, Israel boosts air defenses

Israel has boosted its air defense in the northern part of the country following a significant confrontation between the Jewish State, Syria and Iran which led to the loss of an F-16 fighter jet.

While the Israeli army refused to comment on the reports, witnesses reported seeing a convoy of missile defense batteries heading north near the Israeli-Arab city of Baqa el-Garbiyeh. Other witnesses posted photos of several trucks carrying the batteries on central highways in northern Israel.

Israel’s air defenses currently include the Iron Dome, designed to shoot down short-range rockets; the Arrow system, which intercepts ballistic missiles outside of the Earth’s atmosphere; and the David’s Sling missile defense system, which is designed to intercept tactical ballistic missiles, medium-to-long-range rockets and cruise missiles fired at ranges between 40 to 300 km.  

Israel also has Patriot missile batteries stationed in the north of the country and have used them to intercept drones infiltrating into Israeli airspace from Syria. In September, an Iranian-built unmanned aerial vehicle breached the “Bravo line” that marks the Syrian demilitarized zone and was intercepted by an Israeli Patriot anti-ballistic missile launched from a station near the northern city of Safed.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Vows "Hell To The Zionists" As Putin Warns Netanyahu

Iran has called reports that they sent a UAV into Israeli airspace "ridiculous," while an Iranian commander warns that they could unleash "hell" on the "Zionist regime" by destroying all US bases in the area. 

“The claim about the flight of an Iranian drone and Iran’s involvement in the downing of a Zionist fighter jet is so ridiculous that it does not merit a comment,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi, while claiming that Iranian officials are only advising the Syrians “at the request of the… legitimate and lawful government.”

Moreover, any "aggressive actions" by Israel would trigger a serious response by Iran, creating "hell for the Zionists" according to Brigadier General Hossein Salami, deputy head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards. His statement below:

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Israeli Prime Minister Benajamin Netanyahu in a Saturday phone call to avoid an escalation of the situation in Syria, reports Reuters, while Netanyahu asserted Israel's right to "defend against aggression."

“They discussed the situation around the actions of the Israeli air force, which carried our missile strikes on targets in Syria,” Interfax quoted the Kremlin as saying.

Netanyahu also spoke with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Saturday where he reiterated Israel's stance. Tillerson is about to embark this weekend on a five-nation tour of the Middle East, visiting Turkey, Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan and Lebanon.

"Our policy is clear," said Netanyahu. "Israel will defend itself against any aggression and any attempt to violate its sovereignty," adding "Iran undertook such attempt today. It violated our sovereignty, and infiltrated its drone into Israeli airspace from Syria."

IDF accuses Iran of setting up air base outside Syrian city of Palmyra

The Israeli military on Saturday accused Iran of controlling an airbase outside the Syrian city of Palmyra, from which the army said the Iranian drone that was shot down over northern Israel earlier in the day was launched.

“Iran and the [Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ special unit] Quds Force for some time have been operating the T-4 Air Base in Syria next to Palmyra, with support from the Syrian military and with permission from the Syrian regime,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Saturday night.

Notably missing from the army’s statement was an accusation that Russia — the main powerbroker in Syria and dictator Bashar Assad’s most important supporter — had also been allowing Iran and its Quds Force, responsible for operations outside Iran, to operate the air base.

An Israeli military official said the T-4 Air Base, also known as the Tiyas Air Base, is being used by Iran and its Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force to transport advanced weaponry to other members of its “axis,” which is made up of Syria, Hezbollah, and Shiite militias in the region.

“It is part of a process of a force build-up against Israel,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Iranians have been operating the base for several months, claiming that they were doing so as part of the fight against terror groups in Syria.

“However, the actions carried out in the past day show that the true purpose was to take direct violent action against Israel,” the official said.

Report: Six killed in IAF strikes on Syria

At least six people were killed Saturday during Israeli airstrikes on regime targets in Syria, an anti-Assad NGO organization has reported.

Israel Air Force fighter aircraft attacked several military targets operated by the Assad regime and its allies in and around the Damascus area Saturday, including a command and control center used to direct an unmanned aircraft which violated Israeli airspace.

The Iranian-built drone aircraft was shot down by Israeli forces after it penetrated Israeli airspace.

IAF aircraft responded by attacking the command center which had directed the drone, as well as Syrian surface-to-air missile batteries which opened fire on the Israeli aircraft.

Iran's Saegheh drone in Syria – a worry for US as well as Israel 

Iran’s Saegheh is no ordinary UAV; it is the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ prize drone for assault and intelligence gathering. It made its debut outside Iran on Saturday, Feb. 10 when it slipped into Israeli airspace, first circling east into Jordan. Until then, the Saegheh (Storm) was not generally known to have reached the Syrian warfront. 

After it was brought down almost intact by an Israeli Apache helicopter, Israel Air Force jets bombed the drone’s command vehicle deep in central Syria, at the T-4 base near Palmyra, which is shared by Iran and the Russian air force. The speed of this counter-punch confirmed that Israeli intelligence had tracked the drone from the moment it took to the air from T-4 and was on standby to snag it.

The price tag for the operation was paid by the IAF F-16’s exposure to Syrian air defense fire. The two pilots flew the crippled plane back over northern Israel, before ejecting for a parachute landing. One is recovering in hospital from a serious injury; the second was slightly hurt.

The infiltrator drone was discovered to have been part of a whole fleet of advanced armed Saegheh UAVs housed at the T-4 base. The second wave of Israeli air strikes against 12 Syrian and Iranian targets decimated this fleet. 

Most importantly, the drone intrusion and its sequel exposed the incident to have been no one-off,  but part of a calculated Iranian plot against Israel at the highest level, that was coordinated in advance with the Russian air force, which shares the use of T-4, and the Syrian air defense systems, which operate under Russian command. It is equally important to note that Iran brought its Saegheh UAV’s to Syria with Moscow’s consent.

Netanyahu: Israeli strikes dealt 'serious blow' to Iran, Syria

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said airstrikes targeting key Iranian military facilities in Syria over the weekend inflicted heavy damage on the Iranian and Syrian militaries, and vowed that Israel would act decisively to counter any further provocations.

“Yesterday we dealt a serious blow to the armies of Iran and Syria,” Netanyahu told ministers at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. “We made it unequivocally clear to everyone that our rules of engagement have not changed in any way.”

The wave of Israeli airstrikes came after the IDF intercepted an Iranian drone that had infiltrated its airspace and an Israeli F-16 was downed upon its return from Syria on Saturday. It was Israel’s most serious engagement in neighboring Syria since fighting there began in 2011 — and its most devastating air assault on the country in decades.

The IDF said it destroyed the drone’s Iranian launching site along with four additional Iranian positions and eight Syrian sites, including the Syrian military’s main command and control bunker.

 Naftali Bennett told the radio station Israel won’t show restraint when its sovereignty is violated, and warned that Saturday’s strikes were “a small example of what we know how to do.”

Freed from shroud of 'foreign reports,' Israel-Iran fight steps out from shadows

On Thursday, the International Crisis Group think tank and advocacy firm warned in a new comprehensive report that Israel and Iran (plus its proxies) were barreling toward open conflict in Syria.

Those prescient warnings came true — in part, at least — throughout Saturday morning, beginning shortly before 4:30 a.m., with the violation of Israeli airspace by a drone that the Israeli military says was piloted by an Iranian operator from an airfield that Tehran had taken control of months before, with Syrian permission.

Israeli jets conducted reprisal raids in Syria, during which one of the F-16 fighter planes was apparently hit by shrapnel from an exploding anti-aircraft missile and crashed in northern Israel, in what appears to be the first downing of an Israeli plane since 1982.

The aerial exchange thrust what had previously been a long-simmering but largely quiet conflict into the international spotlight and raised concerns that this bout will be the first of many clashes — and, in the nightmare scenario, the start of a full-fledged war across Syria, Lebanon and northern Israel.