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IDF training for Syria scenarios with Iran behind cross-border attacks
An IDF officer said yesterday that Iran is coordinating efforts to launch attacks on Israel from across the Syrian border and that Israeli forces are training to respond to a potential large-scale attack.
Speaking anonymously to reporters, the officer said, “It’s clear that Iran is behind all of the terror attacks here [in the Israeli Golan] in the past two years.” Israel has remained on the side lines of the Syrian conflict, but has infrequently responded to cross-border fire, planned attacks and Iranian-orchestrated attempts to smuggle weapons to its Hezbollah allies.
The IDF officer specified the danger posed terror cells in the area, saying, “The Iranians are using the border – they establish units – whether it’s [Jihad] Mughniyeh, [Samir] Kuntar, and more – to carry out [the attacks].” An apparent Israeli air strike in Syria in January killed prominent Hezbollah figure Jihad Mughniyeh and an Iranian general accompanying him. Meanwhile, in April, Israel confirmed it launched an air strike to prevent a terror cell it believes was headed by Hezbollah arch-terrorist Kuntar and funded by Tehran, from infiltrating the Israel-Syria border. The IDF yesterday released footage of the operation against the Kuntar cell.
Israeli media says that the IDF is busily preparing for a possible large-scale operation against an attack from Syria. Channel Two reports that a drill was held last week which involved a potential advance into Syria and the evacuation of Israeli border communities. The same report said that Islamists are arriving in the border area in large numbers. Meanwhile, Channel Ten says that the drill prepared for the possibility of a multi-pronged attack from Syria including rockets and ground forces, similar to an attack launched by Sinai Islamists in 2011, which saw eight Israelis killed near the Egyptian border.
Meanwhile, the terror group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command claimed that Israeli Air Force jets attacked one of its sites near the Syria-Lebanon border on Friday night. The IDF did not comment on the claims.