The Israel Defense Forces carried out raids in Syria over the past week, locating, confiscating and dismantling numerous weapons, the Israeli military said on Saturday.
Among the weapons found were ammunition, missiles and additional military equipment, the IDF said.
The “targeted raids,” under the command of the 474th “Golan” Territorial Brigade, were based on intelligence indications and involved soldiers of the Paratroopers Brigade, the Armored Corps and the Yahalom special operations engineering unit, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement.
The troops are “deployed at strategic points in Syria” and will “continue operations to eliminate any threat and strengthen the defense of the State of Israel and its citizens,” the IDF added.
The military did not specify the location of the raids.
On Monday, Israeli Air Force fighter jets attacked a military site of Syria’s former Assad regime near Qardaha, overlooking Latakia in northwestern Syria, in response to “recent developments in the area,” the Israeli military said.
The attack targeted “a military site where weapons belonging to the previous Syrian regime were stored,” the statement added. It did not specify which developments prompted the strike.
Since the fall of the Iranian- and Russian-backed Assad regime on Dec. 8, Israel has taken up positions inside and beyond the Golan Heights buffer zone, including on the strategic Syrian side of Mount Hermon. The Israeli Air Force has conducted hundreds of strikes on former Assad military assets to prevent them from falling into the hands of hostile forces.
With the collapse of the Assad regime and the rise of the rebels significantly undermining Iran’s regional axis, Iran’s Mehr news agency announced on Wednesday the establishment of a new terrorist organization named “The Islamic Resistance in Syria.”
The organization was founded “in light of the recent developments Syria has witnessed,” according to the report.
In a statement released by the group, it said, “This step is a natural and legitimate response to confront the attempts at division and displacement that the country has endured.”
The statement was accompanied by a logo resembling those of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah, featuring a raised hand holding a rifle.
