The Iranian proxy terror group has also reportedly undertaken efforts to re-position infrastructure in Syria.
By Erin Viner
“This comes as part of ongoing camouflage operations by Hezbollah and Iranian-affiliated militias as their military positions continue to be targeted by Israel” or “aerial bombardments by ‘unidentified aircraft,’” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
The Lebanon-based terror group has been actively fighting alongside Iran, on behalf of its patron’s close ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in attempts to regain control of his country since the outbreak of civil war in 2011.
According to SOHR sources, Hezbollah transported weapons and ammunition caches from military positions south of the capital Damascus to “more heavily fortified warehouses” in western locations near the al-Kiswah region.
Militant forces were also redeployed from posts near the Syrian capital and the eastern desert of Homs, specifically the Palmyra area, to other various areas.
“On November 10, SOHR sources reported that the Lebanese Hezbollah camouflaged military positions and posts near the Syrian-Lebanese border in Rif Dimashq,” added the United Kingdom-based agency.
The report cited the stationing of “Iranian-backed militiamen” at three Hezbollah positions and checkpoints just four kilometers away from the border. The fighters “also wore the military uniforms of the regime forces and raise the Syrian flag on their cars, with pictures of Bashar Al-Assad, placed on them, amid great security tightening,” said the report.
In related developments, opposition media in the Arab Republic reported that the IDF airdropped pamphlets – said to bear the insignia of the Northern Command’s Bashan Division – around Quneitra in southern Syria, warning regime forces to end collaborations with Hezbollah. The Arabic-language flyers were said to have appeared within hours of reported missile strikes on Syrian Armed Forces (SAF) radar and anti-aircraft systems near Tel-Kalib in the Al-Suwayda region on Sunday. While there was no official statement of an attack, local residents were said to have heard explosions in the area.
The alleged IDF message read: “To the leaders and soldiers of the Syrian army, time and time again, you are responsible for the damage caused by your ill-guided decisions,” adding “Hezbollah is establishing in the Tel-Kalib area and cooperation with them will not bring you peace. The presence of Hezbollah in the region only brings you harm and humiliation, and you are the ones paying the price.”
The IDF has refused to comment on the allegations, although Western intelligence sources say Israel’s “shadow war” against Iranian-linked targets inside Syria has escalated over the past year. Research centers for weapons development and munitions depots operated by Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) have particularly been in the cross-hairs, as well as weapons convoys from Iran to Syria and military transport of missiles from Syria to Lebanon.
Israel has acknowledged mounting hundreds of attacks on Iranian-linked targets in Syria where the Islamic Republic’s forces and proxy have become entrenched in deployments aimed at attacking Israel over the last decade.
While the Jewish State rarely confirms such missions, the country’s political and defense leaders have repeatedly stated that Iran’s presence just over the northern frontier will not be tolerated.