Israel strikes Syria, attacking Iranian forces after detecting border explosives.

Israel invaded Syria on Wednesday with the intention of killing Iranian forces who thought they were planting explosives on the border. The Syrian Human Rights Observatory, a war monitor, reported that at least ten civilians, including five Iranians from the elite Quds Force and at least two militiamen, were killed in Israeli air raids.While Syrian officials, representing the coalition of the two regional powers supporting the rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, denied that Iranians or Lebanese were among the victims. The Syrian state-owned media agency announced that the attack killed three military personnel and injured one.

Israel’s strikes directly attacked facilities run by the Quds Army, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite military unit, and the Hezbollah militia, backed by Iran. Jonathan Conricus, the Israeli military spokesman, said his country had chosen eight places to strike, covering a wide range from the Syrian-controlled side of the Golan Heights to the edges of Damascus.He added that the targets of Israel also included the Iranian headquarters at Damascus International Airport, a “secret military site” where Iranian military delegations and the Syrian Armed Forces Seventh Division took refuge.

Despite the withdrawal of US President Donald Trump, Israel used the attack to send a direct message to Assad and the Iranian regime about its preparedness for offensive-defensive war. Israel also tried to reveal the Iranian forces’ presence in Syria, which Assad officially declined to consider.

The latest attack was branded as “Israeli aggression” by the Syrian media. Over the past few years, Israel has a history of targeting Iranian-backed militias in Syria, but the latest attack has been the most precise in terms of objectives and the broadest in terms of range. It was called a shadow war by Western intelligence outlets to minimise the power of Iran in the region.