Following up on the deadly Israeli drone strikes against Kiswah, in the southern part of metro Damascus, Israel conducted an overnight raid of an old airbase there, with dozens of IDF troops arriving via helicopters and spending over two hours in the base.
The troops landed at a hilltop near Jabal Manea, which was an airbase with an Iranian presence before the fall of the Assad government last year. The new Syrian Army has a presence at the site now, though it appears they were chased off by Israeli drone strikes ahead of the raid, and Israeli warplanes kept them from returning.
It’s not clear what the Israeli troops were actually doing at the base, though it had been reported that some old Iranian weapons may have been left there. The IDF has declined to comment on the operation, saying their policy is to not comment on foreign media reports, and the first coverage of the raid was in the Syrian press.
Yesterday’s drone strikes killed eight Syrian soldiers. Though there hasn’t been an Israeli explanation for the attack, Syrian media suggested that the Syrian troops had found some Israeli surveillance devices at the site and were dismantling them at the time of the strikes. It’s possible that last night’s ground raid was related to those devices.
Meanwhile, other Israeli officials suggested that they were there to dismantle Turkish surveillance devices that had been there for over a decade. The official warned that Turkey was “trying to get closer to Israel more than it should.” Israel also warned Syria “not to test its patience.”
Israel was carrying out airstrikes on Syria throughout the country’s civil war, and after the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took power in December, Israel invaded more or less immediately, seizing the demilitarized zone and eventually going yet deeper into Syria’s southwest.
Negotiations between Israel and the HTS are ongoing, not to end the state of war but to try to slightly reduce the level of hostility. Since deeper invasions are going on concurrent with that, as well as deadly Israeli drone strikes, the talks likely face an uphill battle.
