Israel criticized for attack on Syrian air base, central to Iranian military supporting Assad
Israel is faced international blowback Tuesday over the bombardment of Syria’s largest air base, a center for the Iranian military effort to support Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Lebanon announced it would complain to the United Nations about the “Israeli intrusion” into its airspace.
Photo/Talmoryair via wikimedia commons
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the strike as “a dangerous development” in the Syrian civil war with the Foreign Ministry in Moscow requesting time with Israel’s ambassador to Russia, Gary Koren.
It should be noted that Israel is “believed” to have carried out the attack, but has not acknowledged a role in the bombing of air base T4.
Russian and Iranian news services reported that two Israeli F-15 war planes carried out the strike, which a conflict monitor said killed 14 people. The Russian military said the planes had approached from the Mediterranean Sea before firing from Lebanese airspace. Syria’s air defense systems shot down five of the eight missiles fired, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
This assault comes after a chemical weapon attack on civilians in Damascus’ rebel-held suburb of Duma.
In Damascus, Ali Akbar Velayati, the diplomatic advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued an open threat to Israel on Tuesday after the Iranian government said it had lost seven personnel in the strike.
Velayati spoke out to address “crimes committed by the Zionists against the Syrian forces and defenders of the holy shrines in the Al Tifour Airport,” an alternate name for the air base, adding that “The crimes will not remain unanswered. Victory is near.”
Iran has long been a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Both countries see themselves as part of the “Axis of Resistance,” an alliance of forces opposed to American and Israeli influence in the Middle East.
