Syria’s T-4 air base, home to Iranian military personnel, was attacked late Sunday night in a repeat air strike, allegedly by Israeli warplanes, according to a Syrian military source who spoke with Al Masdar News.
The Israeli fighter pilot who reportedly carried out the strike succeeded in hitting the target despite having to dodge several S-200 air defense missiles fired by the Syrian military.
No further details were made available.
The Israel Air Force attacked the T-4 (Tiyas) air base this past April, destroying a military drone center that had sent a military attack drone packed with explosives into Israeli territory. At least seven Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps soldiers and seven Syrian Arab Army (SAA) soldiers were killed in that attack.
The air strike followed a fierce exchange in which an Israel Air Force F-16 was hit by a Syrian anti-Aircraft S-300 missile and crashed in Israeli territory during a retaliatory attack that followed the entry of the Iranian drone into Israeli airspace. Both the pilot, who was seriously injured, and the navigator ejected and taken to Maimonides Medical Center in Haifa. Both survived and eventually returned to service.
The IAF launched two more waves of attack on Iranian and Syrian anti-aircraft missile sites, in what the commander, Brigadier General Tomer Bar, described as “a complete operational success, including the thwarting of the UAV, attacking the sources of the fire, and in a subsequent response.”
Israel has made it clear that it is determined to continue undermining Iranian efforts to entrench itself militarily in Syria and will do whatever it takes to stop the transfer of game-changing weapons to Hezbollah.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet this week with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and on the agenda will be — again — the issue of eliminating Iran’s presence in Syria.