May 10, 2018

Israel today launched its largest barrage of rockets to strike Syria in recent years, claiming to target all of Iran’s military infrastructure in the country. Israeli officials said that the strikes were in response to 20 Iranian rockets that had targeted the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights hours earlier. In recent months, Israel has reportedly been behind attacks on a number of Iranian sites inside Syria, including an air base used by Iranian forces.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has not yet responded to the allegation that Iranian forces were behind the Golan attack nor has an Iranian military official. If they were indeed Iranian rockets, it would be the first direct military retaliation by Iran toward Israel. Iranian media outlets have also not attributed the Golan strike to Iran, instead reporting that Syria had carried out the strikes.

The Tasnim News Agency reported, “Last night Damascus responded to the missile strikes of the Zionist regime such that a number of bases of the regime were targeted, and Zionist settlers slept in shelters overnight.” Quoting Syrian sources, the article claimed that dozens of Israeli rockets were intercepted by Syrian air defense systems.

According to Tasnim, the Israeli targets on the Golan were reportedly all military infrastructure or intelligence-gathering facilities, including of the 9900 Intelligence Unit, which it described as “one of the most secretive Zionist spying units.” The agency said of the alleged attack on the 9900 unit, “The strike from Syria against sensitive targets in occupied Golan caused considerable damage against the Zionist army’s preparedness in the field of intelligence.” Tasnim claimed that it is the 9900 Unit that gives Israel “the upper hand in intelligence speed for continuous military and security decision-making.”

Tasnim was not alone in attributing the Golan rocket fire to the Syrian government. Coverage by Fars News also pointed a finger at the Damascus, calling it retaliation for the recent Israeli strikes. It ran the headline “Syria’s response to the aggression with 68 missiles: 10 military points in occupied Golan were targeted.”