Israel Strikes Iranian Arms Shipment at Damascus Airport - Wall Street Journal

Israel Strikes Iranian Arms Shipment at Damascus Airport
Missiles latest in a string of attacks aimed at checking Iran in Syria

By Sune Engel Rasmussen in Beirut
Updated Sept. 16, 2018 2:42 p.m. ET
Israeli missiles are suspected to have struck an Iranian arms shipment at Damascus airport late Saturday, the latest in a string of attacks aimed at eroding Tehran’s military foothold in Syria.

The strikes play into a broader conflict unfolding in the Middle East. The fight against Islamic State militants, who have been driven from their strongholds in Syria and Iraq, has given way to a jostling for power among foreign and regional actors.

Israel has watched with concern as Iran has entrenched itself deeper in Syria on the back of its support for the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, which has reclaimed most of the territory once held by antigovernment rebels.

Over the past year, Israel has sharply increased airstrikes against Iranian assets in Syria, striking targets from its own border area to the far eastern part of the country to neighborhoods near the capital, Damascus.

Saturday’s strike seemingly targeted a warehouse and a recently arrived arms shipment from Iran to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based monitoring group, which said the launched missiles were likely Israeli.

According to a news report by the Israeli Hadashot TV Sunday morning, the strike also hit an Iranian cargo plane loaded with weapons, which had recently landed at Damascus International Airport from Tehran.

The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported that the country’s air defenses repelled some of the incoming missiles, which it said were fired from Israel.

People in Damascus posted footage on social media showing explosions that they described as the airport being hit. The were no immediate reports of casualties.

The Israeli military, in accordance with its usual practice, declined to comment on individual military actions.

But Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday at the beginning of a cabinet meeting that Israel would continue to enforce its red lines, without specifying what they are. He has previously said Israel won’t allow Iran to establish a military presence in Syria.

“Israel is constantly working to prevent our enemies from arming themselves with advanced weaponry,” he said.

The most recent strikes follow warnings from Israel’s defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, earlier this month, that his country would broaden its military campaign against Iran. Israel has accused Iran of seeking to establish a land corridor, allowing it to transport personnel and equipment from Tehran to the Mediterranean, through Iraq and Syria.

Israeli officials have said that Israel has conducted more than 200 strikes, using about 800 bombs, against Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria since the beginning of 2017. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday’s attacks were the third time Israel struck Syria this month.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday’s attacks were the third time Israel struck Syria this month.

Tensions between Israel and Iran have grown as the Assad regime, backed by Tehran, has pushed to clear rebel-held areas near the border with Israel. Israel has said it won’t allow militias loyal to Tehran to entrench near the Golan Heights.

In its largest-ever operation inside Syria, Israeli warplanes in May made dozens of strikes against Iranian infrastructure after an Iranian unit in Syria fired about 20 short-range artillery rockets that Israel said were either shot down or fell short of a nearby military base.

In June, Israel struck a compound near Syria’s frontier with Iraq that security officials said housed members of an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia who crossed the border into Syria.

Rising hostilities between the two long-term foes have exposed fault lines in the relationship between Russia and Iran. Both countries have fought on the side of the Syrian regime, but Moscow is eager to maintain ties with Israel and enlist its support for an enlarged footprint in the Middle East that won’t shrink once the war is over.

Russia has sought to assure Israel that it wants only Syrian forces fighting in the country’s southwest. It has made sure that Iranian-backed troops are no closer than 85 kilometers (about 53 miles) from the Israeli border, Russia’s special envoy to Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev has said, according to Russian news media.

Moscow has even tried to open diplomatic channels between Tehran and Tel Aviv to defuse tensions, The Wall Street Journal reported in May.

In a meeting with President Trump in July, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin committed to “safely guarantee the security of the State of Israel.”


Russia previously this year pointed to Israel as being responsible for an attack in Homs that killed more than a dozen Iranians or Iranian-linked fighters. But Russia, which controls part of Syria’s airspace, hasn’t interfered in Israel’s attacks.

—Felicia Schwartz and Nazih Osseiran contributed to this article.