![]() Some of the suspected Iranian military research and development (R&D) activities have been disrupted by repeated strikes, satellite images sent to Reuters indicate. "You have warehouses dug into the mountains and equipped to be resistant even to bunker busters," he told Reuters. ![]() "There are fortifications underground that Israel cannot reach., tunnels that maybe it knows where they begin but not where they lead to," said a Syrian military source, who said he worked for years in one of the compounds. However, some underground compounds stretch as many as 10 km (6.2 miles), making them difficult to penetrate thoroughly even for Israel's satellite-guided, 500-pound "bunker-buster" bombs, according to a senior Western intelligence source. "It's been.months of painful hits, not (any more) limited to the Golan Heights or southern Syria (close to Israel) or around the outskirts of Damascus, they've gone north to Aleppo and Hama and to Al Bukamal on the Iraqi border," a Syrian military defector, Brigadier General Ahmad Rahal, told Reuters. Jane's defence news analysts said that over a three-year span Israel had used 4,239 weapons against 955 targets with 70% of Israeli pilots involved in the campaign, with the new F-35I Adir fighter jets leading dozens of missions. In the latest strike on Thursday, Israel hit al Dumair on the northeastern outskirts of Damascus which it has repeatedly hit in the past and where suspected Iranian-backed militias have a strong presence. Over the past year, Israeli warplanes, missiles and drones have hit a far wider range of targets - from suspected Iranian guided missile research and production sites to arms storage depots - than in the previous five years, said three Israeli officials and a senior Western official based in the region. and Israeli power in the wider Middle East. Iran has said it has military advisers in Syria to help Assad's forces, and will continue a policy "resisting" U.S. Iran's Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment. It is up to Damascus to decide where they should serve." Pressed about the military dimensions of Iran's presence, the second Iranian official replied: "We send our workforce to Syria. Syrian officials did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment on the assertions that Iran was using Syrian bases to create a forward arc of firepower threatening to Israel.Īsked whether this was Iran's overriding objective in Syria, two senior Iranian officials told Reuters Tehran was playing a major role in rebuilding Syria's war-shattered infrastructure, ranging from construction projects to power grids. Israel sees Iran as a threat to its existence and has sought to blunt Iran's quest for wider regional power with a selective mix of military and covert actions, including what Tehran says have been sabotage attacks on its nuclear programme. ![]() "We want to prevent Iran turning Syria into a Iranian base close to Israel that may bring a drastic strategic change in the situation.That's why we keep pounding Iranian bases so they don't take control of the country," Kuperwasser told Reuters. ![]() We are trying to hit targets with a strategic impact," said Brigadier General Yossi Kuperwasser, a former director general of Israeli's strategic affairs ministry and ex-head of the research wing of Israeli military intelligence. "I don't think Israel is interested in hitting each and every target belonging to Iranian-led forces.
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