SOHR: Strike on U.S. Base Was Iranian Response to Israeli Attack, Officials Say

Eight U.S. and Israeli officials spoke anonymously to discuss information issues, saying last month’s armed drone strike at a U.S. military base in southern Syria was Iran’s retaliation for Israeli airstrikes in Syria. according to.

A drone strike that did not cause any casualties was the first time Iran had ordered a military attack against the United States in response to an Israeli attack, and the escalation of Iran’s shadow war with Israel was given to the U.S. forces in the Middle East. East brings new dangers.

Five so-called suicide drones were launched on October 20 at an American base in Altanf. This is what the US Central Command called a “intentional and coordinated” attack. Only two were bombed by the impact, but U.S. military officials said they were equipped with ball bearings and shrapnel with a “clear intention to kill.”

Most of the 200 U.S. troops stationed at the base are primarily responsible for training Syrian militias to fight the Islamic State, evacuating hours before being overturned by Israeli intelligence. Officials said they were doing so.

US officials said they believed that Iran had commanded and supplied the surrogate forces that carried out the attack.

They hesitated to reveal the details of the attack, and a Pentagon spokesman publicly announced Iran to avoid confusion in negotiations to resume nuclear deals with Tehran, which is scheduled to resume at the end of the month. Refused to blame.

However, Israeli and US intelligence officials said they had intelligence to show that Iran was behind the operation. Since three of the drones did not explode, US officials could investigate them and determine that they were using the same technology used by Iran-backed militias in Iraq.

Iran’s press praised it, but Iran has not claimed responsibility for the attack.

Saeed Khatibzadeh, a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said in a press conference last week that “there were many of these cases blaming Iran without evidence or documentation.” “The countries that set up military bases in Syria without the invitation of the Syrian central government, continue terrorist policies and support terrorist states are the true source of instability in the region and Syria.”

A telegram channel operated by a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the strike was a response to the United States, which allowed Israeli attacks on “resistance” forces in eastern Syria. The militia commander concluded that they “must pull the snake’s teeth,” meaning the United States.

The US base is on a road that acts as an important link for Iran-backed troops, along a strategic corridor from Teheran through Iraq and Syria to the South Lebanon-Israeli border.

High-ranking U.S. and Israeli officials said they had information showing that the drone strike was a retaliation for the recent Israeli attack on Iranian troops in Syria.

On October 8, Israel launched a missile at an air force base in central Syria. It is functioning as Iran’s military headquarters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in the United Kingdom.

On October 13, Israeli airstrikes attacked Iranian targets near the cities of Palmyra and Homs in central Syria, killing three pro-Iranian soldiers and one Syrian soldier. Iranian officials have promised retaliation.

On October 16, Israeli snipers assassinated Midhat Saleh, a high-ranking Syrian official, said Israeli intelligence was working with Iran to establish military infrastructure along the border to attack Israel. ..

The Iranian army first moved to Syria to protect President Bashar al-Assad from the rebellion that began in 2011, and used the subsequent civil war as an opportunity to build militia and military infrastructure directed at Israel. Israel has launched hundreds of attacks on Iran’s targets in Syria since 2013.

U.S. officials said the Iranians were hesitant to attack Israel for fear of retaliation, so they took the next best thing-attacking the Americans. Officials said Iran wanted to avoid a direct conflict with Americans, but at great risk of attacking Altanf, who may have killed American soldiers, forced the U.S. military response. rice field.

Two senior U.S. officials said Iran may have believed that the drone strike would be seen as a militia initiative rather than Iran.

US officials said Javad Gaffari, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria, is actively supporting the use of military force to expel US troops from Iraq and Syria. However, officials said it was unclear how much Iran’s group leaders agreed with this approach.

The U.S. response was to announce new sanctions against two senior members of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, two other Iranians, and two companies that say the U.S. is part of the Guard’s drone program. ..

U.S. officials said they suspected that the new sanctions had enough teeth to bring many benefits.

Iran seems to have previously attacked a third party in response to an Israeli attack.

Approximately two weeks after Israel attacked Hezbollah’s Beirut missile production facility, Lebanon’s powerful Iranian support militia, Saudi Arabia’s oil facility was attacked by suicide drones and cruise missiles in 2019. US officials said Iran carried out the attack. Iran denied it.

The United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia are all part of the anti-Iranian coalition to varying degrees, and Iranian authorities consider all three to be a single threat. In this case, US and Emirati intelligence officials said Iran had attacked Saudi Arabia for fear of a direct conflict with Israel.

The attack on Altanf is the latest in a series of increasingly tense military exchanges and conflicts between Iran, Israel and the United States.

Iran seized an oil tanker in the Omani Sea last month after an encounter with the US Navy, but they gave very different explanations of who the tanker was and exactly what happened.

Separately, U.S. officials complained this month that several suspected Iranian drones had “safe and unprofessional interactions” with the USS Essex assault landing ship when they left the Strait of Hormuz.

In July, an Israeli-owned shipping company-controlled oil tanker was attacked off the coast of Oman, killing two crew members from Britain and Romania. Israeli and US officials said the attack appeared to have been carried out by several Iranian drones that crashed into a settlement under the ship’s headquarters.

The strike was the first Iranian attack in a maritime conflict known to have killed civilians.