Israel allegedly conducted a deadly aerial bombardment of Syria’s Tiyas (T-4) Air Force base, reportedly wreaking havoc on warehouses belonging to the elite Iranian Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. T-4 is the largest airbase in the Arab Republic, located in the Homs Governorate.
A Syrian military source confirmed the strike to TV7; which claimed the lives of at least six people, including one Syrian officer and five foreign nationals. The source further noted that the incoming projectiles were fired from the al-Tanf region near Syria’s southern border with Iraq. according to the London based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Iranian weaponry and an additional building under construction were destroyed.
According to verified reports, four missiles managed to penetrate Syria’s Russian-made defense system to score direct hits against their intended targets. Others were successfully intercepted by Syrian surface-to-air batteries.
Syrian military officials have attributed the attack to Israel. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit has refused to confirm or deny involvement, reiterating Israeli military policy of non-response to foreign reports on operational activities.
The IDF Intelligence division, known by its Hebrew acronym AMAN, has recommended increasing efforts to obstruct the entrenchment of Iranian forces just over Israel’s northern frontier in Syria.
In its annual assessment submitted to Jerusalem’s Security Cabinet, AMAN called for additional covert aerial strikes against Iranian-backed militias in the Arab Republic to capitalize on the vacuum in leadership of the IRGC’s Quds Force in wake of the successful assassination of its commander, Maj.-Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
AMAN’s report further stated that the Islamic Republic could accumulate enough enriched uranium needed for nuclear weapons within one year, while underscoring it would take another year to produce its first bomb.
An intelligence official explained to TV7, on condition of anonymity, that the assessment also provided possible operational scenarios to further delay Tehran’s so-called ‘breakout point,’ after which the only remaining option to thwart its nuclear weapon capability would be “a decisive wide-scale kinetic operation.”