Iranian Military Base and Missile Platform Destroyed by Israeli Air Raids in Syria

Several military sites in Syria including an Iranian-run camp were bombarded by Israeli warplanes shortly after midnight on Wednesday, November 18.

Avichay Adraee, the Israeli Defense Forces’ spokesman for Arab media, issued a statement on social media confirming the raids on bases close to Damascus operated by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force and the Syrian Army.  

"We targeted eight specific sites,” he wrote, “the most prominent of which was an Iranian-run camp being used as the main headquarters for Iranian forces near Damascus International Airport, as well as a secret site south east of Damascus used to host high-ranking Iranian figures and delegations, which was also used as accommodation for Quds Force officials.”

According to Adraee, the raids also targeted the headquarters of the Syrian 7th Division in the southern Golan Heights. Quds Force members, he alleged, were using this division to “direct their terrorist activities against Israel” by planting explosive devices on the border. 

The IDF’s air force also targeted an advanced surface-to-air missile battery that had fired at an Israeli aircraft the night before. 

For its part, the Syrian state-controlled news agency SANA cited a military source as saying that three soldiers had been killed and others wounded in the Golan Heights area. “Syrian air defenses confronted the Israeli aggression, shooting down several enemy missiles,” they added.

One of those killed is thought to be Major General Bashir Salim Ismail, Commander of the Syrian Armed Forces’ 137th Regiment, in the southern Damascus countryside. Pro-Assad social media pages also reported the deaths of three other officers.

According to a statement issued by the IDF on November 17, a Syrian cell had placed explosive devices on the Israeli border on the instructions of the IRGC. The IDF said it would hold the Syrian regime responsible “for any acts committed and launched from its territory” while pledging to continue “to take action as necessary against Iranian groupings in Syria”.