Israel’s military said in the early hours of Sunday morning that its fighter jets had attacked targets in Syria on Saturday in order to prevent what it described as a “very imminent” drone attack launched by Iran.
While Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes against Iranian targets in Syria over the past years, Saturday’s appeared to be one of the most intense.
Killer drones stopped
In a briefing to reporters, military Spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said that Iran had been planning to send explosive-laden attack drones into Israel.
He added that the country had been monitoring the plot for several months and on Thursday had prevented Iran from an even earlier launch.
“The threat was significant and these killer drones were capable of striking targets with significant capacity,” Conricus said. He described it as an attack planned from the top down rather than a low level attack.
Conricus said Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Al Quds force, as well as allied Shiite militias, were behind the attempted attack.
Read more: Is Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terror group as US says?
He added that the Israeli strikes were aimed at “a number of terror targets and military facilities belonging to the Quds force as well as Shiite militias” in the area southeast of Damascus.
Iran supports the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and Israel wants to prevent Iran from establishing a permanent foothold in Syria, where its Shiite proxy Hezbollah increasingly operates in support of Assad’s government forces.
Conricus said that Israel’s chief of staff was meeting with senior officers and that military forces were on high alert near the border with Syria.
Major airstrike, fast response
In the past Israel has not been quick to announce its airstrikes. However, the military announced Saturday’s strikes very shortly after they took place.
Immediately after the military’s announcement, President Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted a statement on the operation. He described the Israeli airstrikes as a “major operational effort” and warned that Iran would not be immune from Israeli strikes, regardless of location.
“Iran has no immunity anywhere,” he added in his Tweet. “If someone rises up to kill you, kill him first.”
The airstrikes triggered Syrian anti-aircraft fire. Syrian state TV reported that air defenses had responded to “hostile” targets over Damascus and shot down incoming missiles but did not provide further details.
This article was originally published in DW.
