Syria Missile Strikes Reportedly Kill at Least 16

Syria has been struck by missiles that led to killing of 16 people. The military bases of Iran and the nearby militias were targeted and the blast was huge and shook the ground equivalent to a small earthquake. This was reported by monitoring group and the one of Iran’s regional allies.

The attacks

The attack was confirmed by the news media of Syrian state. The attack took place near the central city of Hama and northern city of Aleppo in late Sunday. However, the number of dead people have yet not been found. Although it has been found that the maximum number of dead people were Iranians. This was reported by the regional alliance of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, the militant group.

Also Read: Syrian Gas Attacks

Till now, no one has taken the responsibility for the attack. Although, Israel is being suspected about the attack. Israel since a long time had been accusing Iran for using Syria as a cover under which they have been developing the military base. Israel has decided to take every necessary step from preventing Iran to develop any military infrastructure in Syria. Russia and Syria had blamed Israel for the military attacks that happened on April 6 on the military base of Syria. In the attack, seven Iranians died, while an officer of the country’s done program died too.

If the number of dead people due to the strikes of Sunday is almost equivalent to that of reported and Israel is blamed, they are likely to move towards the shadow war. Both, Iran and Israel would move towards the war with a number of people residing towards the edge. It is still a confusion if Iran and the allies would counter-attack and if it would lead to a war.

Syria Missile Strikes: Number of dead

Iran’s semi-official news agency, ISNA reported 18 out of 40 dead, were Iranians. However, the report later had to be taken down because the Iranian officials claimed that none of their people were dead in the attack.

The former head of intelligence for the Israeli military and the current executive director of Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, Amos Yadlin reported stated that Iranian officials may have drawn back the report of any of its people being killed because then they would not be forced to attack back.

In a conference call on Monday, Mr Yadlin said, “If there are no Iranian casualties, you are not committed to retaliation.” However, he had expected that Iran would retaliate to the attack even if the time and location weren’t clear. “The Iranian retaliation is on its way.”

Syria Missile Strikes: Involvement denied by Israeli military

The Israeli military has neither accepted nor denied about the involvement in the attack. It also refused to comment on the Syrian attacks which happened on Sunday. The security cabinet of Israel had conducted an emergency meeting on Monday to resolve and discuss about the increasing tension between Israel and the northern neighbours.

Syria has completely been shattered and destroyed over the course of seven years due to the attack. Iran had sent the military officers to help the army of the President, Bashar al-Assad. It has also taken significant steps to mobilize the militaries of Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and other places to fight on behalf of Syria.

For all these reasons, Iran has been blamed by Israel for building up a military infrastructure in Syria. It has frequently bombed the targets as they say they are trying to bring down the efforts of Iranian military of developing any military bases near the borders of Israel.

The allies are the Lebanese military group, Hezbollah, and a political party that grew in recent years into a regional military force in their own will.

Ali Vaez, the director of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group in a statement said, “There is now so much friction between the sides that it is very natural that a single miscalculation across the board on one of these flash points could spiral out of control.”

As per the statement of the White House, a day before the Sunday Strikes on Syria, President Trump had talked to the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu over the phone about “the continuing threats and challenges facing the Middle East region, especially the problems posed by the Iranian regime’s destabilizing activities.”

Mike Pompeo, the news secretary of the state who visited Israel during the time, in a conference with Mr Netanyahu said that the co-ordination of America with its allies was “critical to our efforts to counter Iran’s destabilizing and malign activities throughout the Middle East.”

He also added, “The United States is with Israel in this fight, and we strongly support Israel’s sovereign right to defend itself.”

Reports of the Syrian Observatory of Human rights

The Britain based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also claimed that in the attack 26 people were dead, most of which were Iranians. The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights monitors all the news in Syria through their contacts.

The strikes were targeted at the munitions warehouses of the 47^th Brigade military base near the central Hama Province used by Iran and its allies. The Observatory also reported that the attack destroyed the ground missiles and led to the large military explosions.

The blast was large enough that it got registered in the earthquake monitors. The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre said that the area near the base got disturbed, and was hit by a magnitude of 2.6. They also reported the attack being equal to a small or minor earthquake.

The observatory also reported, that another attack took place near Aleppo in the military air base of Neirab.

The official of the regional alliance reported that due to the attack, 200 missiles were destroyed while 16 people were killed. The alliance includes Iran, Syria and Hezbolllah. The storage facility of the base near Hama were targeted and attacked. They reported that 11 of the dead were Iranians. The official spoke in anonymity because he was not commanded to talk to the journalists.

He and the other regional alliance officials said that they had expected Tehran to counter-attack Israel for striking the bases, mostly after the parliamentary elections of Lebanon. The Parliamentary elections are scheduled on 6^th May and the Hezbollah candidates are also contesting the elections.

This is not the first time that any such attack is taking place in Syria. Over the course of seven years, Syria has been destroyed due to frequent bombings and attacks.

The analyst, Mr Vaez on his conversations with the Iran officials suggested that Iran may counter-attack on Israel for striking the bases of the Iran in Syria. He stated, “They believe that this is a slippery slope, that there is a need to send a message to Israel that there is a cost associated with its pushing the envelope too far.”

Since the involvement of the US is suspected, as in when the parties would respond to the attack is completely dependent upon the country. This would further force Mr. Trump to draw out from the nuclear agreement as reported by Mr. Vaez. He also said that Israel must have attacked the Iranian bases on Sunday to provoke them for the very same purpose.

Mr Vaez also said, “We are in a vicious cycle, and the reality is that the collapse of the nuclear deal will significantly increase all these tensions.” He then further added, “All the parties will take the gloves off at that stage.”