US air strike in Syria against Iranian targets and unspecified cause of death of an Iranian General create new data in the region
“US military announces airstrikes against IRGC-backed groups in Syria” is the headline of an International Media article whose highlights are as follows:
“US President Joe Biden has ordered airstrikes on facilities used by Iran-backed groups in Syria, the US military announced late Tuesday.
“At the direction of President Biden, US military forces conducted precision airstrikes in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor today,” said Colonel Joe Buccino, Director of Communications for US Central Command (CENTCOM).
It said the strikes targeted infrastructure facilities used by groups linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The strikes are intended to defend and protect US forces from attacks like those on August 15 against US personnel by Iran-backed groups, Buccino said in a statement.
Last week, US forces reported being hit by a drone in Syria, but said there were no casualties or damage. US troops in Syria, part of an international coalition fighting ISIS, are regularly attacked by Iranian-backed groups.
“Today’s strikes were necessary to protect and defend US personnel,” Buccino said, adding that the US had taken “proportionate, deliberate action” to contain the risk of escalation and minimize the risk of casualties.
According to Buccino, Biden ordered the strikes under Article II, which gives the president the authority needed to protect and defend US personnel by hindering or preventing attacks by Iran-backed groups.
“The United States does not seek conflict, but will continue to take necessary measures to protect and defend our people,” he said, adding
“US forces remain in Syria to ensure lasting defeat of ISIS.”
Also according to another International media, a General of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was killed while “on a mission” in Syria, Iranian state media reported on Tuesday.
“General Abolfazl Alijani, a member of the IRGC ground forces who was on assignment in Syria as a military adviser, testified on Sunday,” state television said on its website.
He described Alijani as a “defender of the sanctuary,” a term used for those working on Iran’s behalf in Syria or Iraq, without providing further details about the attack in which he was killed.
Iran says it has deployed its forces to Syria at the invitation of Damascus and only as advisers
In early August, funerals were held in Tehran and other Iranian cities for five IRGC members killed in Syria several years ago after their bodies were recovered and identified through DNA testing, Iranian media reported.
In March, the Guards said an Israeli strike in Syria killed two of its officers, warning that Israel “will pay for the crime”.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes inside Syria in recent years, targeting government positions as well as allied forces backed by Iran and fighters from the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
While Israel rarely comments on individual strikes, it has acknowledged carrying out hundreds since 2011.
Iran and Israel have been locked in a protracted shadow war, with the Islamic Republic accusing its “sworn enemy” of carrying out sabotage attacks on its nuclear facilities and killing people, including scientists.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is the ideological arm of the Iranian military and is blacklisted as a terrorist group by the United States.”
Whether or not the death of the Iranian general is related to the American air strike has not been possible to ascertain.
However, we find that the climate of tension and mutual blows between the US and Iran has returned to the fore, while until now this only happened between Israel and Iran.
Although there are assurances that the United States does not seek conflict, but will continue to take the necessary measures to protect and defend the personnel of its Armed Forces in Syria, we nevertheless realize that the scene in the region has now changed and developments cannot rule out any development for the worse.
The USA seeks together with Israel the creation of NATO Middle East with the participation of Arab and Gulf countries, against Iran.
Greece also enters the equation, being a close US-Israel ally, giving strategic depth to the latter and hosting American military bases.
Our country should further strengthen its relations with Israel, unifying its anti-aircraft defense with it, since this will have the effect of, on the one hand, making the country a bridge between NATO on the European Continent and the under-formation NATO M. East, on the one hand to dissolve the Turkish “Blue Homeland” in the SE Mediterranean.
On the other hand, Iran-Russia-Turkey agreed to prevent the creation of a Kurdish formation in Syria, which the US wants.
Therefore, we expect developments in Syria, since our assessment is that the USA will not remain spectators and abandon the YPG Kurds once again.
