The American Wall Street Journal reports that the United States has secretly coordinated numerous airstrikes with Israel and that Israeli warplanes have hit Iranian militias and other foreign warplanes in Syria. According to the newspaper, US officials have so far said very little about Israeli bombings in Syria. The Lebanese Hezbollah, a representative of the Tehran administration on the Mediterranean coast, aims to stop the flow of advanced weapons and reduce the number of Iranian troops and other militias in Syria.
However, the Wall Street Journal has highlighted the attacks that have taken place despite Russia being on Bashar Assad’s side. Most of the hundreds of airstrikes so far have been reviewed and approved by US Central Command and the Pentagon, the report said.
The Wall Street Journal, which publishes news based on current and former officials, said the US goal was not to influence the war against the terrorist organization DAESH, which is trying to straighten out the Israeli bombing.
According to the Wall Street Journal, which wrote that government cooperation between the United States and Israel was previously undisclosed and confidential, the coordination shows how Washington supports Tel Aviv by not participating in the shadow war against Iran.
EL TANF Route
The Americans focused specifically on Israeli jets near the Al-Tanf base in eastern Syria. It said the Al-Tanaf area on the Syrian-Jordanian border was an important route for areas along the Syria-Iraq border where Israel continues to strike. Most of the strikes carried out by Israeli warplanes on the Iraqi border in and around Elbu Kamal were approved by the United States. According to the WSJ, the U.S. military has not assisted the Israelis in targeting or reviewing all of its military operations in Israel.
A former U.S. official who spoke to WSJ described a “well-developed and measured” process for coordination, while the Israeli Defense Ministry and the Pentagon, for which the newspaper applied, declined to comment on the process.
YPG terrorists have been called ‘local partners’
A U.S. Defense Department official says their only goal in the area around al-Tanf and in northeastern Syria is to ensure the permanent defeat of the terrorist organization Daesh. Officials have used the term “local partner” for YPG terrorists in northeastern Syria. The official said he would not share details of security risks to US troops and measures to reduce their responsibilities.
He spoke seriously about retaliation against Iran
As the civil war in Syria began, Iran, which had taken to the field with its militia to support Bashar al-Assad, launched a drone strike on the Al Tanaf base in October 2021. The drone strike was a response to the Iranian attack by Israel, and no American troops were harmed. The WSJ records that the Tehran administration tried to pressure the United States to discourage Israeli attacks. From Washington’s point of view, the response to the drone strike was seriously discussed and it was said that an empty training ground in Iran or a pre-bombed building could be the target. But then Joe Biden decided to impose economic sanctions on Tehran.
Changed table
Israel has been the United States’ closest military ally in the Middle East for decades. At times, however, Washington has sought to reduce its ties with Israel in the face of other foreign policy challenges in the region.
During the Gulf War, Israel secretly supplied demining equipment to the US-led coalition, which was trying to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s troops from Kuwait. The United States was concerned that Israel’s role on the ground was creating rifts between Saudi, Egyptian and Syrian forces.
Washington has maintained close ties with Israel and other Arab states in the Middle East for years, but the developing relationship between Israel and the countries in the region and its identification with Iran as a “common enemy” has changed the picture.
The United States, which has existed with special forces troops in northern and eastern Syria since 2015, is not the only player in the civil war country, according to the Wall Street Journal. Bashar al-Assad continues to fight his opponents, and Assad’s ally, Russian warplanes, are bombing enemies of the Damascus government. And the Turkish army is stationed in northern Syria.
Added to this difficult picture is the growing presence of Iranian special forces and militias, which have provided strong support to Assad since the beginning.
‘War in War’
The United States has repeatedly attacked Iranian militias in Syria and Iraq. But there were also concerns about keeping tensions with Iran low, as the United States could always return to the nuclear negotiating table.
However, Israel has without hesitation hit Iranian militias and special forces at every point in Syria, except on the Turkish border. Informing the WSJ, the Israeli military has announced that it has carried out more than 400 airstrikes in Syria and other parts of the Middle East since 2017. Israel has targeted Hezbollah militias with precision-guided missiles, especially at bases where drones are hidden.
The Tel Aviv administration, which aims to reduce Iran’s offensive force against Israel, has defined the 400 operations in question as “war on war.”
To avoid any confrontation with the Russian forces stationed at Hameimim base on the Mediterranean coast, Israel uses a special line to report their attacks around the base.
The change of route by Israeli aircraft to al-Tanaf base, which sought to bypass Syria’s air defense system, posed a challenge to the United States. According to the WSJ, the Israeli military is currently sharing details of its planned attack with the Americans. Officials speaking to the newspaper said the matter was reported to the US Secretary of Defense and the Chief of General Staff while investigating the plot.
The Pentagon has largely approved plans for an Israeli attack, but has called for change. The Wall Street Journal has twice called on Israel to stop its attacks so that the US military’s own sensitive activities are not affected.
Most notably, Israel was told to press a button while planning an operation to assassinate Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the murderous group DAESH, during a US special forces operation in Idlib.
The map, published in the Wall Street Journal, shows that Israel is mostly targeting the Syrian capital, Damascus, and the area around Homs in northeastern Lebanon. The newspaper stressed that the Americans had mostly tested the attack on the al-Tanf route, but that operations targeting targets in Iraq were not within the scope of the investigation.
