IDF: “Look closely. See the man with white hair? That’s the head of the Syrian Armed Forces 1st Corps, Luau Ali Ahmad Assad. He’s visiting Hezbollah positions in #Syria.”

If I were Syrian General Luau Ali Ahmad Assad, I’d be worried.

The Israel Defense Forces just sent him a warning over allowing Iranian proxy Hezbollah to establish bases in Syria:

Look closely. See the man with white hair? That’s the head of the Syrian Armed Forces 1st Corps, Luau Ali Ahmad Assad. He’s visiting Hezbollah positions in #Syria. Our message: We see you. Consider this a warning. We won’t allow Hezbollah to entrench itself militarily in Syria.

Look closely. See the man with white hair? That's the head of the Syrian Armed Forces 1st Corps, Luau Ali Ahmad Assad. He's visiting Hezbollah positions in #Syria. Our message: We see you. Consider this a warning. We won't allow Hezbollah to entrench itself militarily in Syria. pic.twitter.com/vmPtZe1VuC — Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 10, 2020

The IDF tweet doesn’t say it, but Assad was accompanied by Hezbollah’s southern commander Hajj Hashem, the Jerusalem Post reports:

The Syrian military is continuing to support Hezbollah and allowing the terrorist group to gain a foothold in the Syrian Golan Heights, claimed IDF Arabic language spokesperson Avichay Adraee on Twitter. The footage shows the commander of the new 1st Corps in the Syrian Armed Forces Luau Ali Ahmad Assad on a tour of the sites known to be used by Hezbollah accompanied by Hezbollah’s southern commander Hajj Hashem. “Hezbollah’s presence in Syria in general and in the Syrian part of the Golan Heights in particular aims to create a terrorist infrastructure against the State of Israel with the cooperation and care of the Syrian regime,” tweeted Adraee, warning that Israel “will not tolerate this entrenchment!” Adraee warned that Syria would be held responsible for all hostile actions from their territory. “The one warning has done his duty,” concluded the IDF spokesman…. Hajj Hashem, the Hezbollah commander mentioned by Adraee, was identified as Munir Naima Ali Shaito in a report by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA). Shaito is in charge of recruiting locals in southwest Syria with financial incentives, with 3,500 local Syrians joining Hezbollah’s ranks since mid-2018, according to the report. The Hezbollah commander has also been involved in the Syrian Civil War since the terrorist group got involved in 2013. He served as the deputy head of the Operational Unit for Palestine in 2000 and was promoted after the Second Lebanese War to the position of deputy commander of the elite Badr unit.

#عاجل #خاص: حتى في زمن #كورونا – قائد الفيلق الأول في #الجيش_السوري يواصل مساندة #حزب_الله بالتموضع في #الجولان. في الشريط الذي نكشفه اليوم يظهر قائد الفيلق اللواء علي أحمد أسعد في جولة بين المواقع المعروفة باستخدامها من #حزب_الله برفقة قائد قيادة الجنوب في الحزب #الحاج_هاشم pic.twitter.com/bkvDYiW3Hd — افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) April 10, 2020

Israel’s i24 News reports on why the warning was made:

Should the Syrian General take the warning seriously?

At about 9 A.M. last Friday [in 1996], a cellular phone rang in the plain cinder block dwelling where Yahya Ayyash was hiding in this warren of muddy lanes and ramshackle houses near the northern edge of the Gaza Strip. As Mr. Ayyash, the Palestinian bomb-maker most wanted by Israel, held the phone to his ear, it exploded, shearing off part of his head and blowing off his hand. He died instantly.

If I were Syrian General Luau Ali Ahmad Assad, I’d be leaving:



