IDF destroys Syrian outpost used by Hezbollah

JUNE 17, 2021 12:54

The IDF struck a Syrian outpost near the city of Quientra, marking the first strike on the northern border by the government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

The post, some 150 meters away from the border, was affiliated with the Syrian Army’s 90th Brigade and First Corps had been frequented by Hezbollah officials and used as a reconnaissance post against IDF forces on the Golan Heights. According to Syrian opposition reports it was destroyed by tank fire.

Two weeks ago the IDF destroyed another observation post in the same area built in the demilitarized zone.

Writing on Twitter, Avichay Adraee said that the military “destroyed a forward observation post of the Syrian army that was set up in an Israeli area west of the Alfa line in the Golan Heights.”

Israel, he said, “would not tolerate any attempts to violate our sovereignty.”

There were at least two other strikes blamed on the Jewish State since the beginning of May.

During his tenure as Defense Minister, Bennett worked to escalate Israel’s steps against Iranian forces in Syria with the aim of Tehran to withdraw all of its troops from Israel’s northern borders.

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While the IDF does not respond to most foreign reports, it has admitted to carrying out hundreds of airstrikes as part of its “war-between-wars” (known in Hebrew as MABAM) campaign to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the entrenchment of Iranian forces in Syria, where they could easily act against Israel.

Although Israel usually refrains from targeting terror operatives to try to avoid subsequent retaliation, some strikes ascribed to the Jewish state have killed several Hezbollah operatives in southern Syria on the Golan Heights, where the group has been trying to establish a permanent military presence.

The Golan Project has its headquarters in Damascus and the Lebanese capital of Beirut. The operatives began operating in the Syrian towns of Hadar, Quinetra and Erneh to collect intelligence on Israel and military movement on the Israeli Golan Heights.

But according to a December report by the ALMA Research and Education Center, Hezbollah’s presence in southern Syria is much larger than previously revealed, with some 58 sites in the southern Syrian provinces of Quneitra and Daraa, where the terror group’s Southern Command and Golan Project have been deployed.