TerrorismIsraeli strike in Syria kills Hezbollah commanders, six Iranian officers

Israeli helicopter on Sunday fired missiles at a 3-car convoy near the village of Mazrat al-Amal on the outskirts of Quneitra. The convoy was traveling inside Syria, two or three miles from the Israeli border, carrying Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of former Hezbollah military leader Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed by Israel in February 2008.

In all, twelve people – six Hezbollah members and six Iranian military commanders and soldiers — were killed in the attack, in addition to Mughnyyeh. They include two Hezbollah officers — field commander Mohammad Issa, who goes by the nom de guerre “Abu Issa,” and Ismail al-Ashhab – and Abu Ali al-Tabtabai, also known as “Abu Ali Reza,” the Iranian Commander in the Syrian Golan Heights.

Iranian news outlets earlier today reported that, in all, six Iranian officers were killed in the attack, including Gen. Ali Allah-De’adi, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard officer who was a military adviser to the Assad regime.

Hezbollah said in a statement that its men were on a field reconnaissance mission in Quneitra. Lebanon’s MTV network reported that the Hezbollah officers were in the area to prepare to launch rockets at Israeli targets on the Golan Heights.

In the last year, Hezbollah, on instructions from Iran, has launched several attacks on Israel in response to Israeli attacks on Assad regime’s targets, including arms depots and military convoys, involved in attempts to deliver advanced weapon systems to Hezbollah.

One of the most recent Israeli attacks was the first to destroy targets inside Lebanon (see “Israeli jets attack Syrian weapons convoys in Hezbollah-held area in Lebanon,” HSNW, 25 February 2014).

Israeli government and military would not comment on Sunday attack, in keeping with Israel’s previous refusal to comment on attacks inside Syria.Haaretz reports that Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon refused to address the attack directly.

“Every time something happens in the region, we are blamed,” he told Kol Hai Radio. “I have no interest in addressing this. We have heard [Hezbollah’s leader] Hassan Nasrallah’s speech last week. He denied the presence of Hezbollah operatives in the Golan. If this is true, has some explaining to do.”

The strike on the convoy comes three days after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in a TV interview from the bunker where he has been hiding since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, said he considered Israeli strikes on targets inside Syria as acts of major aggression, and that Syria — that is, the Assad regime — and its allies had the right to respond.

The Assad regime and Hezbollah are Iran’s two most important regional allies, and since the spring of 2013, thousands of Hezbollah fighters have been sent to Syria on Iran’s orders to fight alongside President Bashar Assad’s forces. The Assad forces were in retreat at the time, but Hezbollah’s involvement, and increased Iranian military assistance, have helped to strengthen Assad’s holds on areas around Damascus and in northwest Syria.

Jihad Mughniyeh, who was in his mid-20s, was appointed in October last year to head Hezbollah’s Golan division. Haaretz notes that this information was released by Syrian opposition groups, not by Hezbollah. Mohad Razlan, a senior official in the Syrian National Council, a coalition of moderate Syrian opposition groups, said at the time that the appointment signaled Hezbollah’s decision to expand its operations in the Golan. London-based Arabic language newspaper Al-Arabiya reported that Mughniyeh was close to influential Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.

The latest Israeli attacks inside Syria against Hezbollah-bound arms occurred last month, when Israeli jets bombed targets near Damascus International Airport and in the town of Dimas, north of Damascus and near the Lebanese border. News reports said that the Israeli air force flew at least ten sorties over Dimas and attacked several military targets.

Imad Mughniyeh was killed by Israeli agents on 12 February 2008, when his jeep blew up outside his home in Damascus. The killing of Mughniyeh was one of Israel’s most demanding, and impressive, covert operations. Mughniyeh was always meticulous about secrecy and personal security, and the only available photo of him was more than two decades old. In addition, his role in building Hezbollah into an effective military organization made him one of Iran’s and Syria’s most important regional assets, and the Assads, both father and son, built around him one of the tightest and most impregnable security envelope.

The search for him by Israel’s Mosad was long, and the operational environment extremely difficult, but in the end the Mosad succeeded in taking him out.