Quick takes // By Ben FrankelIsraeli strike unrelated to Syria’s chemical attack

Published 9 April 2018

Israeli warplanes flying over Lebanon launched missiles at a Syrian regime airbase in the desert east of the city of Homs. Israel has attacked an Iranian command-and-control center at the airbase back in February. The attack on T-4, or Tiyas, was not related to the Saturday Syrian army chemical weapons attack against civilian neighborhood in the town of Douma. Rather, it is part of an on-going, intensifying Israeli campaign against the growing Iranian military presence in Syria.

Israeli warplanes flying over Lebanon launched missiles at a Syrian regime airbase in the desert east of the city of Homs. Israel has attacked an Iranian command-and-control center at the airbase back in February.

The attack on T-4, or Tiyas, was not related to the Saturday Syrian army chemical weapons attack against civilian neighborhood in the town of Douma. Rather, it is part of an on-going, and intensifying, Israeli campaign against the growing Iranian military presence in Syria.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that most of those killed were Iranians, including three high-level officers.

DW reports that the Russian military said two Israeli F-15 jets carried out the strikes from Lebanese airspace, and that the Russian-supplied Syrian air defense surface-to-air missiles intercepted five of the eight missiles launched by the Israeli jet fighters.

Israel, following its long-held policy, refused to confirm or deny that Israel was involved in the attack.

T-4 is located mid-point between the city of Homs and the ancient ruins of Palmyra. It was used by the Russian air force at the height of Russia’s war against the anti-regime rebels, but it is unclear how many Russian planes ad people are still at the base.

In the last five years, Israel has conducted hundreds of operations – both air strikes and commando raids — against Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria. This campaign has intensified in the last year and a half, as Assad, with the support of Russia and Iran, has emerged victorious in the civil war which started in 2011.

Assad victory is viewed in Israel as a meaningful strategic threat because of the growing military presence of Iran in Syria.

Israel and Russia have established a communication channel between them to allow Israel to alert Russia about impending strikes against Iranian targets in Syria. Russia has so far turned a blind eye to Israeli attacks on Iranian and Hezbollah targets, and appears willing to let Israel continue its campaign as along as Russian lives and assets are not threatened.

Russia yesterday pointedly said that Israel had not informed it of the attack, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the lack of communication as a “dangerous development.”