Israel airstrikes on Assad forces

[Insight]

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/national_world/2015/08/21/israel-hits-syrian-targets-after-4-rocket-barrage.html

Israel hits Syrian targets after 4-rocket barrage


By William Booth & Hugh Naylor THE WASHINGTON POST • Saturday August 22, 2015 4:47 AM


JERUSALEM — In an intense cross-border skirmish on Thursday and Friday, Israeli artillery and aircraft struck more than a dozen military installations in southern Syria, as well as an alleged jihadist cell, in response to the firing of four rockets into northern Israel.
On Friday morning, Israel’s air force fired a missile into the Syrian-held side of the Golan Heights that killed as many as five people described by Israeli military officials as “a cell associated with Islamic Jihad.” According to the officials, the cell was behind the rocket fire into Israel on Thursday afternoon.
Islamic Jihad is based in the Gaza Strip and has members and cells in the West Bank and, according to Israelis, in southern Syria. The Palestinian militants fought a 50-day war with Israel in Gaza last summer alongside the Islamist militant movement Hamas.
Israel said it had “credible information” that the rocket-launch crew, reportedly killed while driving in a vehicle 10 miles inside Syria, was directed by Saeed Izaadhi, who heads the Palestinian division of Iran’s Quds Force, a unit of the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
There was no claim of responsibility for the rocket fire from Syria.
The Israelis offered no details proving that Islamic Jihad had fired the rockets, which caused little damage and no injuries in Israel, or that Iran was involved in ordering the attack.
But Israeli officials stressed in their remarks that the rocket fire toward Israel had been guided by Iran’s hand.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “The states rushing to embrace Iran should know that an Iranian commander gave the cell orders to fire at Israel.”
Dore Gold, director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said Iranian proxies were attacking Israel “before the ink was dry” on the nuclear deal reached last month between Iran and six world powers including the United States. Gold called the rocket fire “another clear and blatant demonstration of Iran’s continued and unabating support and involvement in terrorist attacks against Israel.”

[Insight]

For the record, and to address [MENTION=1058]Bengal_Tiger[/MENTION] s claim that Israel airforce will be unable to strike at Assad regime/Iran/Hezbollah due to Russian's presence in Syria.

First point: Russian forces have been present at Tartus naval base and throughout Syria before and after the conflict began. This is no game changer. All it is is Russia is making it known and increasing their numbers, but Israel has known for a long time. Israel still conducted several airstrikes even with this knowledge of Russian troop presence in Syria.

https://kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/2014/10/21/russian-intelligence-and-the-war-in-syria/

Two days later the plot thickened when a further video was uploaded to YouTube, showing the rebels touring a captured regime intelligence station in Tel al-Hara:

“[The video] shows what appears to be a Syrian officer conducting a tour of the facility for the rebels, pointing at photographs, maps and captions on the walls, in Russian and Arabic. The symbols of Syrian intelligence and the 6th Directorate of Russian military intelligence (GRU) which deals with signal intelligence (SIGINT) are shown there side by side. In the photographs, Russian and Syrian officers can be seen collecting and analyzing intelligence together. … The officers are directed, according to standing orders on the wall, to listen in to communications of the rebel groups. Also on the wall, is a map detailing locations of Israel Defense Forces positions in the north of Israel.”

This has rather unsettled Jerusalem because there is evidence Russia “has deep intelligence penetration into Israel“. (Point is Israel still conducted airstrikes even after knowing this) Israel has been drawn into the Syrian war, and has provided humanitarian assistance to Syrians and military help some rebels to protect her borders. The fact that Moscow was looking to blunt Israel’s role in Syria, since Russia is well “[a]ware that Israel could topple the Assad regime if it deems it necessary,” was not a shock. “Russians are Russians,” as one ex-senior intelligence official put it, and “the facts had been basically known,” but “the nature of the intelligence being collected and the fact that the Russian officers left traces … were rather unexpected.”

[Insight]

For the factual record, this was one of the Israeli airstrikes where Israel despite knowing Russian military presence in and around Damascus (Russia has shipped Assad anti ship and anti aircraft), still conduced 2 days of airstrikes against the Assad regime. Im only posting the facts (not even my opinion).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edtVmjo6fVk