Revolutionary Guards deny Israel hit Iranian targets in Syria air strikes

Israeli says it struck Iranian forces that had been planning to launch ‘killer drones’ at its targets

Israeli soldiers with their artillery unit deployed at the Israeli-Syrian border, in the Golan Heights, north of Israel, on Sunday. Photograph: Atef Safadi/EPA
Israeli soldiers with their artillery unit deployed at the Israeli-Syrian border, in the Golan Heights, north of Israel, on Sunday. Photograph: Atef Safadi/EPA

A senior Revolutionary Guards commander denied on Sunday that Iranian targets had been hit in Israeli air strikes in Syria, the semi-official ILNA news agency reported.

Israeli aircraft on Saturday struck Iranian forces near Damascus that had been planning to launch “killer drones” at targets in Israel, an Israeli military spokesman said.

“This is a lie and not true. Israel and the United States do not have the power to attack Iran’s various centres, and our (military) advisory centres have not been harmed,” said Revolutionary Guards Major General Mohsen Rezaei, who is also the secretary of a powerful state body, ILNA reported.

Iran says its military are in Syria as advisers and not fighting troops.

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“The actions carried out jointly by Israel and the United States in Syria and Iraq are in breach of international law and will soon be answered by Syria and Iraq’s defenders,” said Rezaei, a Guards chief in the 1980s and 1990s who currently holds no military post.

Iraq’s paramilitary groups on Wednesday blamed a series of recent blasts at their weapons depots and bases on the United States and Israel.–Reuters