Israel launched an air attack in Syria on Wednesday that killed some 40 Syrian soldiers and reduced a weapons depot and other sites to rubble, a report said.
The Wall Street Journal reported the targets were in various cities, including some that border Iraq. Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel’s settlement affairs minister, said, “Israel is determined to prevent Iranian military entrenchment in Syria.”
The Jerusalem Post reported that Tel Aviv has carried out more than 1,000 airstrikes aimed at various targets in Syria over the past five years, but the ferocity of the recent assault in the eastern part of the country stands apart. “They eviscerated a warehouse, a military headquarters, and other sites. Two dozen people were reported killed, including Syrian soldiers and members of Iranian-backed groups,” the report said.
The paper repeated rumors that Tehran is still planning to seek justice over the killing of General Qassem Soleimani. U.S. President Donald Trump had ordered a drone strike that killed Soleimani last year when he arrived at the Baghdad International Airport.
In selling their bombing missions to the media, the word is that “both Israel and the U.S. are operating under the assumption that Iran’s retaliation is in the works, and they are taking steps to promote caution, vigilance, defense, and deterrence – perhaps in coordination with one another,” Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, told the paper.
TRENDPOST: As Gerald Celente has long said, “When all else fails, they take you to war.” Since November 2019, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been under the pressure of a criminal indictment on charges of fraud and bribery, and he has twice failed in previous elections to put together a winning coalition.
It is suggested that Netanyahu’s priority is to retain his position as prime minister since there is a legal loophole he can jump through that allows an indicted prime minister to remain in office. And, once in office, he would introduce legislation to stop his trial from moving forward.
Should military exchanges escalate between Iran and Israel, Israel will focus on the war drums beating rather than worsening economic conditions and/or corruption charges.
