Israeli Attacks Squeeze Iranian Aerial Supplies to Syria, Sources Say

This satellite photo released by Planet Labs PBC shows the damage after an Israeli strike targeted the Aleppo International Airport, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
This satellite photo released by Planet Labs PBC shows the damage after an Israeli strike targeted the Aleppo International Airport, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
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Israeli Attacks Squeeze Iranian Aerial Supplies to Syria, Sources Say

This satellite photo released by Planet Labs PBC shows the damage after an Israeli strike targeted the Aleppo International Airport, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
This satellite photo released by Planet Labs PBC shows the damage after an Israeli strike targeted the Aleppo International Airport, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

Israel has intensified strikes on Syrian airports to disrupt Tehran's increasing use of aerial supply lines to deliver arms to allies in Syria and Lebanon including Hezbollah, regional diplomatic and intelligence sources told Reuters.

Tehran has adopted air transport as a more reliable means of ferrying military equipment to its forces and allied fighters in Syria, following disruptions to ground transfers.

Israel has long seen its foe Iran's deepening entrenchment in Syria as a national security threat and is widening the scope of its strikes to hit at this new transport method, the diplomatic and intelligence sources said.

The latest strikes on Wednesday night damaged Aleppo airport just before the arrival of a plane from Iran, a commander in an Iran-backed regional alliance who was familiar with the incident told Reuters.

Israel also carried out a strike on Damascus airport, damaging equipment, the government said, the second such attack airport since June when Israeli air strikes on the runway knocked it out of service for two weeks.

A Western intelligence source said that strike had also aimed to prevent the arrival of a cargo plane.

A spokesperson for the Israeli military declined to comment on the reports. Israel has been mounting attacks in Syria for years against what it has described as Iranian and Iran-backed forces that have deployed there during the 11-year war.

Ram Ben-Barak, head of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said that Israel's goal in Syria is to prevent Iran's plan "to establish another front against Israel in Syria and strengthen Hezbollah's capabilities in Lebanon."

In an interview with Tel Aviv 102 FM, he added that Israel has "managed to foil this plan in various ways."

'Playing with fire'

Syria's foreign minister responded to Wednesday's air strikes by saying Israel was "playing with fire" and threatening regional security.

A regional diplomatic source told Reuters the strikes marked a shift in Israeli targeting. "They started to hit infrastructure used by the Iranians for ammunition supplies to Lebanon," the source said.

"In the past it was only the supplies but not the airport. Now, they hit the runway," the source added.

That shift has been prompted by Iran's increasing use of commercial airliners instead of ground transfers to shuttle weaponry into Syria’s two major airports, according to a Western intelligence source based in the region and a Syrian military defector familiar with the strikes’ targets.

The intelligence source said Israel’s intelligence-gathering had indicated "more flights were being used" to transport weapons and small military hardware that "can be smuggled in the regular civilian flights from Tehran."

In 2019, the United States sanctioned Mahan Air for transporting weapons and personnel to Iranian forces in Syria.

The Syrian military defector said such hardware typically included small UAV drone components, parts for precision-guided missiles and night vision equipment that are easy to "put in a carton in a civilian plane."

Ground transfers through Iraq, Syria and into Lebanon have been less appealing since local rivalries and turf wars along the Iraqi-Syrian border – where pro-Iran Iraqi militias are based – had been disrupting stock flows, the defector said.

When the Damascus airport was hit in June, Iran and allies began to increasingly use the Aleppo airport for transfers, he added – prompting the strikes there about two months later.

The strikes also provide clues as to where Iran is now deepening is entrenchment, said Nawar Shaaban, an analyst at the Omran Center for Strategic Studies, which focuses on Syria.

While the strikes years ago concentrated on areas around Damascus and military zones in the northwest, their spread to Aleppo and even coastal zones highlight locations from which Israel perceives a strategic threat to emanate, he said.

"The dangerous thing is that when we look at these areas that are being hit, it tells us that Iran has spread out more," Shaban said.

"Every time we see a strike hit a new area, the reaction is, 'whoah, Israel hit there'. But what we should be saying is, 'whoah, Iran is there'."



North Korea's Kim Vows Steadfast Support for Russia’s War in Ukraine

TOPSHOT - This photograph taken and released on November 29, 2024 by the Russian Defense Ministry press service shows Russia's Defense Minister Andrei Belousov (4th-L) and his delegation attending a bilateral talks with North Korean delegation in Pyongyang. (Photo by HANDOUT / Russian Defense Ministry / AFP)
TOPSHOT - This photograph taken and released on November 29, 2024 by the Russian Defense Ministry press service shows Russia's Defense Minister Andrei Belousov (4th-L) and his delegation attending a bilateral talks with North Korean delegation in Pyongyang. (Photo by HANDOUT / Russian Defense Ministry / AFP)
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North Korea's Kim Vows Steadfast Support for Russia’s War in Ukraine

TOPSHOT - This photograph taken and released on November 29, 2024 by the Russian Defense Ministry press service shows Russia's Defense Minister Andrei Belousov (4th-L) and his delegation attending a bilateral talks with North Korean delegation in Pyongyang. (Photo by HANDOUT / Russian Defense Ministry / AFP)
TOPSHOT - This photograph taken and released on November 29, 2024 by the Russian Defense Ministry press service shows Russia's Defense Minister Andrei Belousov (4th-L) and his delegation attending a bilateral talks with North Korean delegation in Pyongyang. (Photo by HANDOUT / Russian Defense Ministry / AFP)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed his country will “invariably support” Russia’s war in Ukraine as he met Russia's defense chief, the North’s state media reported Saturday.
A Russia military delegation led by Defense Minister Andrei Belousov arrived in North Korea on Friday, amid growing international concern about the two countries’ expanding cooperation after North Korea sent thousands of troops to Russia last month.
The official Korean Central News Agency said that Kim and Belousov reached “a satisfactory consensus” on boosting strategic partnership and defending each country’s sovereignty, security interests and international justice in the face of the rapidly-changing international security environments in a Friday meeting.
Kim said that North Korea “will invariably support the policy of the Russian Federation to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity from the imperialists’ moves for hegemony,” KCNA said.
North Korea has supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling it a defensive response to what both Moscow and Pyongyang call NATO’s “reckless” eastward advance and US-led moves to stamp out Russia’s position as a powerful state.
Kim slammed a US decision earlier in November to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia with US-supplied longer-range missiles as a direct intervention in the conflict. He called recent Russian strikes on Ukraine “a timely and effective measure" demonstrate Russia's resolve, KCNA said.
According to US, Ukrainian and South Korean assessments, North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia and some of them have already begun engaging in combat on the frontlines. US, South Korean and others say North Korea has also shipped artillery systems, missiles and other conventional weapons to replenish Russia’s exhausted weapons inventory.
Both North Korea and Russia haven’t formally confirmed the North Korean troops’ movements, and have steadfastly denied reports of weapons shipments.
South Korea, the US and their partners are concerned that Russia could give North Korea advanced weapons technology in return, including help to build more powerful nuclear missiles.
Last week, South Korean national security adviser Shin Wonsik told a local SBS TV program that Seoul assessed that Russia has provided air defense missile systems to North Korea. He said Russia also appeared to have given economic assistance to North Korea and various military technologies, including those needed for the North’s efforts to build a reliable space-based surveillance system.
Belousov also met North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol on Friday. During a dinner banquet later the same day, Belousov said the two countries' strategic partnership was crucial to defend their sovereignty from aggression and the arbitrary actions of imperialists, KCNA said.
In June, Kim and Putin signed a treaty requiring both countries to provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked. It's considered the two countries’ biggest defense deal since the end of the Cold War.