عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

45 Casualties in Bombing of Syrian Army’s 4th Division in Damascus Countryside

Russian and Syrian soldiers and officers in joint drills in Tartous, Syria. (AFP/SANA)
Russian and Syrian soldiers and officers in joint drills in Tartous, Syria. (AFP/SANA)
TT
TT

45 Casualties in Bombing of Syrian Army’s 4th Division in Damascus Countryside

Russian and Syrian soldiers and officers in joint drills in Tartous, Syria. (AFP/SANA)
Russian and Syrian soldiers and officers in joint drills in Tartous, Syria. (AFP/SANA)

At least 18 Syrian soldiers were killed and at least 27 wounded on Thursday when an explosive device detonated on a military bus belonging to the Syrian army’s Fourth Division in the Damascus countryside.

It represents one of the deadliest attacks in months against Syrian government troops not on an active front line. Bus attacks in particular have been on the rise, including in the Damascus countryside.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack and no comment from Syrian authorities.

However, sources loyal to the regime in Damascus told Asharq Al-Awsat that some accuse Iran of being behind the attack.

They argue that it came in response to the meeting of the Commander of the division Major General Maher al-Assad earlier this month with Russian military leaders, as well as his division’s participation in joint military drills that took place east of Damascus.

During the drills, Maher appeared for the first time since the war erupted in Syria beside the commander of Russia's forces in Syria Colonel General Aleksandr Chaiko.

Syrian army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Abdul Karim Mahmoud Ibrahim also attended the drills, along with other regime military officers.

The Defense Ministry’s statement didn’t mention the presence of Maher al-Assad, but he appeared in side clips in the video recording published on the Ministry’s official website.

He is accused of committing massacres in Syria and is considered a partner of the Lebanese “Hezbollah” and the militias affiliated with Iran in controlling the main border crossings, commercial transport traffic, smuggling deals and drug trafficking.

Independent media sources in Damascus said Maher’s presence in the military exercises indicates upcoming changes imposed by the development of the Russian war in Ukraine, the intensified competition between Moscow and Tehran, and Türkiye’s position in Syria and the Middle East region.

Sources familiar with the developments in Syria said another group of people loyal to the regime consider the attack an “outcome of internal disputes between the regime's military and security services, and a rise in the level of hostility to the Fourth Division, which persists in its transgressions and imposing royalties.”

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Former Israeli Spies Describe Attack Using Exploding Electronic Devices against Lebanon’s Hezbollah

An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
TT
TT

Former Israeli Spies Describe Attack Using Exploding Electronic Devices against Lebanon’s Hezbollah

An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)

Two recently retired senior Israeli intelligence agents shared new details about a deadly clandestine operation years in the making that targeted Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Syria using exploding pagers and walkie talkies three months ago.
Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war, The Associated Press said.
The agents spoke with CBS “60 Minutes” in a segment aired Sunday night. They wore masks and spoke with altered voices to hide their identities.
One agent said the operation started 10 years ago using walkie-talkies laden with hidden explosives, which Hezbollah didn't realize it was buying from Israel, its enemy. The walkie-talkies were not detonated until September, a day after booby-trapped pagers were set off.
“We created a pretend world,” said the officer, who went by the name “Michael.”
Phase two of the plan, using the booby-trapped pagers, kicked in in 2022 after Israel's Mossad intelligence agency learned Hezbollah had been buying pagers from a Taiwan-based company, the second officer said.
The pagers had to be made slightly larger to accommodate the explosives hidden inside. They were tested on dummies multiple times to find the right amount of explosive that would hurt only the Hezbollah fighter and not anyone else in close proximity.
Mossad also tested numerous ring tones to find one that sounded urgent enough to make someone pull the pager out of their pocket.
The second agent, who went by the name “Gabriel,” said it took two weeks to convince Hezbollah to switch to the heftier pager, in part by using false ads on YouTube promoting the devices as dustproof, waterproof, providing a long battery life and more.
He described the use of shell companies, including one based in Hungary, to dupe the Taiwanese firm, Gold Apollo, into unknowingly partnering with the Mossad.
Hezbollah also was unaware it was working with Israel.
Gabriel compared the ruse to a 1998 psychological film about a man who has no clue that he is living in a false world and his family and friends are actors paid to keep up the illusion.
“When they are buying from us, they have zero clue that they are buying from the Mossad,” Gabriel said. “We make like ‘Truman Show,’ everything is controlled by us behind the scene. In their experience, everything is normal. Everything was 100% kosher including businessman, marketing, engineers, showroom, everything.”
By September, Hezbollah militants had 5,000 pagers in their pockets.
Israel triggered the attack on Sept. 17, when pagers all over Lebanon started beeping. The devices would explode even if the person failed to push the buttons to read an incoming encrypted message.
The next day, Mossad activated the walkie-talkies, some of which exploded at funerals for some of the approximately 30 people who were killed in the pager attacks.
Gabriel said the goal was more about sending a message than actually killing Hezbollah fighters.
“If he just died, so he’s dead. But if he’s wounded, you have to take him to the hospital, take care of him. You need to invest money and efforts,” he said. “And those people without hands and eyes are living proof, walking in Lebanon, of ‘don’t mess with us.’ They are walking proof of our superiority all around the Middle East.”
In the days after the attack, Israel's air force hit targets across Lebanon, killing thousands. Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was assassinated when Israel dropped bombs on his bunker.
By November, the war between Israel and Hezbollah, a byproduct of the deadly attack by Hamas group in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, ended with a ceasefire. More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas militants, health officials have said.
The agent using the name “Michael” said that the day after the pager explosions, people in Lebanon were afraid to turn on their air conditioners out of fear that they would explode, too.
“There is real fear,” he said.
Asked if that was intentional, he said, “We want them to feel vulnerable, which they are. We can’t use the pagers again because we already did that. We’ve already moved on to the next thing. And they’ll have to keep on trying to guess what the next thing is.”