Hizbullah Posts Reportedly Hit in Israel's Syria Raids

Posts for Lebanon's Hizbullah were among those hit in the unprecedented Israeli air raids in Syria overnight, a monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes targeted posts “likely belonging to Hizbullah in the southwest of the city of Homs” and “other posts for Hizbullah and pro-regime fighters in the triangle of Daraa, Quneitra and Damascus' southwest countryside.”

The Israeli raids also hit “the Muadamiyat al-Sham town west of Damascus, in which fighters from Hizbullah, Iran and the Syrian regime's Fourth Battalion are deployed,” the Observatory added.

Israel's army said Thursday it had carried out widespread raids against Iranian targets in Syria overnight after rocket fire towards its forces which it blamed on Iran, marking a sharp escalation between the two enemies.

The raids were one of the largest Israeli military operations in recent years and the biggest such assault on Iranian targets, the military said.

"We hit nearly all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria," Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told a security conference on Thursday morning.

"They need to remember the saying that if it rains on us, it'll storm on them. I hope we've finished this episode and everyone understood," he added.

Israel carried out the raids after it said around 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight.

It blamed the rocket fire on Iran's Al-Quds force, adding that Israel's anti-missile system intercepted four of the projectiles while the rest did not land in its territory.

No Israelis were wounded.

If confirmed, the incident would be the first such rocket fire by Iranian forces in Syria towards Israel.

"We know that comes from the al-Quds force," army spokesman lieutenant-colonel Jonathan Conricus said, referring to the special forces unit affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said dozens of rockets were fired from Syria toward the Israeli-occupied Golan, but did not confirm they were fired by Iranian forces.

It alleged the rockets followed a "first Israeli bombardment on the town of Baath" in Quneitra province.

A senior pro-regime military source in Syria confirmed the salvo of rockets, but insisted Israel had fired first.

Syrian state media reported that Israeli missile strikes had hit military bases as well as an arms depot and a military radar installation, without specifying the locations.

Conricus said intelligence, logistics, storage and vehicles as well as the origin of the rockets were targeted.

Syrian air defenses, which fired dozens of times on Israeli forces, were also targeted, he said.

An Israeli military statement said "this Iranian aggression is another proof of the intentions behind the establishment of the Iranian regime in Syria and the threat it poses to Israel and regional stability."

It added that it "will not allow the Iranian threat to establish itself in Syria. The Syrian regime will be held accountable for everything happening in its territory."

Israel has been blamed for a series of recent strikes inside Syria that have killed Iranians, though it did not acknowledge those raids.

It does acknowledge carrying out dozens of raids in Syria to stop what it says are advanced arms deliveries to Iran-backed Hizbullah, another key foe of Israel.