Israel claims two strikes against Hezbollah in Syria

The Israeli Air Force has confirmed its warplanes have bombed Syria, targeting what West Jerusalem has claimed was a Hezbollah weapons warehouse in Homs province and an “intelligence compound” near Damascus, respectively.

Local residents reported explosions in the town of Al-Qusayr on Tuesday afternoon, located near the border with Lebanon and south of the city of Homs. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that the target was a Hezbollah weapons and ammunition depot.

“This is a further example of Hezbollah establishing logistical infrastructure to transfer weapons from Syria to Lebanon through smuggling routes,” the IDF said in a statement, quoted by Israeli media on Tuesday evening. The IDF also accused Hezbollah of “establishing its terrorist infrastructure within civilian areas.”

Earlier in the day, the IDF confirmed that Israeli jets bombed the vicinity of Damascus on Monday evening. The Israeli military claimed to have killed the head of Hezbollah’s intelligence operations in Syria, Mahmoud Mohammed Shaheen. Shaheen allegedly ran Hezbollah’s intelligence branch in Syria and coordinated with Iran and the government in Damascus.

According to the Israeli military, the targeting of Hezbollah’s assets in Syria “further contributes to the IDF operations in Lebanon, undermining the intelligence abilities” of Hezbollah.

On Monday, the IDF took responsibility for an intelligence-based special operation” inside Syria that resulted in the capture of Syrian national Ali Soleiman al-Assi, accused of collecting intelligence for terrorist purposes. Al-Assi lived in Saida, just over 35 miles (60km) from the border with Israel. The raid reportedly happened sometime this summer.

Israel launched an air and ground offensive against Hezbollah in September, accusing the Lebanon-based Shia group of “terrorizing” the northern border regions while much of the IDF was tied down fighting Hamas in Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has repeatedly bombed Syria over the past several years, calling it preemptive self-defense against Hezbollah and Iran. Tehran and the Shia militia have been working alongside Russia to help Damascus defeat Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorists, which at one point controlled large portions of Syria and Iraq.