Israeli-Hamas War Is Shifting Dangerously Towards Syria
Following the Israeli bombing of Syrian territory, the USA also carried out several air raids in Syria against alleged “pro-Iranian groups.”
The armed conflict between the Palestinian fundamentalist movement Hamas and the Israel Defense Forces, moving deeper into the Gaza Strip, is acquiring new and dangerous territorial implications.
After the Israeli Air Force struck unspecified “terrorist targets” inside Syria on Saturday, November 11, as a result of a missile attack originating from Syria and directed towards the Golan Heights, the US Army also delivered at least two airstrikes to Syria on Sunday against groups “suspected of being allied with Iran.”
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the attack was aimed at a training center for pro-Iranian militias near the city of Abu Kamal in Deir ez-Zor province. In addition, US fighters also struck a “hideout” near the city of Mayadin, close to the Iraqi border, using several heavy GBU-28 bunker busters, which US military intelligence identified as “one of the main bases of pro-Iranian militias.” As the Associated Press writes, citing some well-informed Pentagon sources, “one of the facilities attacked by the US Air Force also contained weapons depots, some of which pro-Iranian militias are planning to send to Hamas.”
Since the start of the war on October 7, Iran, which traditionally supports Hamas, has blamed the USA and its Western allies for the start of the bloody conflict.
The Pentagon chief also said the raid – the third in just over two weeks – was a “legitimate response to the attacks of missiles and drones rigged with explosives” that have intensified over the past month against US troops stationed in Syria and Iraq. The escalation is considered a direct consequence of the armed conflict between Israel and Hamas. International media reported that the United States is currently deploying 900 soldiers in Syria and another 2,500 in Iraq to “assist local forces trying to prevent the resurgence of the Islamic State (ISIS).” According to the US Department of Defense, “about 60 US soldiers have been wounded in recent weeks during guerrilla attacks on US military positions.”