The Washington Post is calling the latest overnight Israeli airstrikes on Syria an "unusually intense" attack on "Iranian positions" there, while The Guardian is reporting "the deadliest airstrikes on Syria in years" which killed 57 Syrian government and Iraqi militia troops.
The airstrikes reached deep into the country near the Syria-Iraq border in Deir Ezzor province, with the targets said to have been arms depots and military positions. The site is also considered a key weapons transit point between Syria and its allies in Iraq and Iran.
The Israeli operation appears connected to Trump's continued pressure campaign against Iran during his last week in the White House. According to an American intelligence source cited in Fox News:
A senior U.S. intelligence official with knowledge of the attack told The Associated Press that the airstrikes were carried out with intelligence provided by the United States and targeted a series of warehouses in Syria that were being used as a part of the pipeline to store and stage Iranian weapons.
The official said the warehouses also served as a pipeline for components that supports Iran’s nuclear program.
The casualty count is uncertain and varying, but Fox also confirmed it as "massive" with up to 18 missile strikes along the border targeting several arms depots.
It's been widely reported that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently met with the head of Israeli Mossad, possibly to coordinate just such an attack.
Israeli officials are once again making threats to launch preemptive strikes on Iran's nuclear development facilities amid new reports the Islamic Republic is ramping up efforts to manufacture materials necessary for the production of nuclear warheads.
"In one of the most forceful statements made by an Israeli official, the Likud’s Tzachi Hanegbi, considered an ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, threatened that Israel could attack Iran’s nuclear program if the United States rejoined the nuclear deal, as US President-elect Joe Biden has indicated he plans to do," The Times of Israel reports.
And crucially a new confidential report by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) alleges that Iran has initiated a major final step in the process necessary to make nuclear weapons.
The secret IAEA document has been seen by The Wall Street Journal and is focus of a bombshell Wednesday report, which says:
The International Atomic Energy Agency, in a report for member states viewed by The Wall Street Journal, said Iran has told the watchdog that it has started manufacturing equipment it will use to produce uranium metal at a site in Isfahan in coming months.
Uranium metal can be used to construct the core of a nuclear weapon.
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