Middle East
IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi speaks at a ceremony on February 28, 2021. Photo: Israel Defense Forces
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff confirmed on Wednesday that the Israeli Air Force had carried out an airstrike targeting an arms convoy along the Iraqi-Syrian border in early November.
Speaking at the Reichman University in Herzliya, Aviv Kohavi said Israeli intelligence had detected a convoy carrying weapons from Iran to Lebanon and carried out a precise strike.
“We needed to send pilots to the right place and they had to evade surface-to-air missiles fired at them. They needed to attack, they needed to hit their targets and come back safely and not kill people who shouldn’t be killed. These are very advanced capabilities,” Kohavi said, as cited by the Times of Israel.
Israel rarely comments on airstrikes attributed to it so it is unclear why Kohavi admitted Israeli involvement.
The attack he refers to is likely to be the one launched on November 8 when at least 15 pro-Iranian fighters were killed. UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported at the time that the attack hit pro-Iran militia positions in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor, along the Iraq border. The strike targeted a convoy of “fuel tankers and trucks loaded with weapons.”
Telegram channels affiliated to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed that the attack targeted oil tankers traveling from Iran to Lebanon. Iranian state media later confirmed that 22 tankers were on their way to Lebanon when eight of them came under attack, adding that the US was responsible.
The US was quick to deny involvement in the strike.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on regime-controlled areas of Syria, as well as Deir ez-Zor, throughout its 11-year civil war, often claiming to target Iran-affiliated militias, such as Lebanon's Hezbollah group which supports the Syrian army.
There has not been any comment from Iraqi or Syrian officials regarding the claim.
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