In mid-March, the weekly official newspaper of the Islamic State, the Al-Naba newspaper, published a lengthy article explaining from the point of view of Islamic law (Sharia) why the organization does not start a war with Israel.
The essence of the article is that the destruction of the Jewish state does not take precedence over “jihad against infidels” elsewhere. Moreover, the war against “godless governments” within the Muslim world is much more important. And only the liberation of Islamic shrines - Mecca and Medina - from the power of the Saudi dynasty is the only priority direction in the struggle of the faithful.
It is characteristic that Jerusalem as the third most important shrine of Islam is not mentioned at all, since this thesis, which arose relatively recently and solely to justify rejection of the creation of an independent Jewish state, has absolutely no significance outside the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
By the way, Jerusalem itself in the article is called nothing less than “Bayt al-Maqdis”, which is close Arabic in Hebrew it sounds like "Beit HaMikdash", and means "house of the Temple". This is what the Jews call their temple, which stood on the Temple Mount (Mount Moriah) in Jerusalem. In other words, the name of Jerusalem accepted in Islamic discourse emphasizes the connection of the city precisely with Jewish tradition, in the process refuting claims spread by Arab radicals that no Jewish temple ever existed in Jerusalem.
Threats against Israel, again accompanied by an explanation that the time for war against the Jews had not yet come, was published in an Al-Naba editorial in June.
The Islamic State regularly has to explain its reluctance to confront Israel, brushing aside criticism from those who question why the self-proclaimed caliphate has been slow to support Palestinian Muslims.
Thus, at the end of 2014, after the end of the Israeli military operation “Enduring Edge” against the Islamic terrorists controlling the Gaza Strip, the spokesman for the Islamic State, justifying the inaction of the organization that did not come to the aid of Hamas, confirmed that the destruction of Israel is certainly is part of jihad. “At the same time,” he said, “ISIS is acting according to plan, and there is a whole series stages that must be passed before confrontation with the Jewish state begins."
However, despite appeals to Sharia and the need to adhere to a pre-developed plan, it seems that the explanation for the reluctance to confront Israel is much more prosaic.
Night exercises of the Rimon special forces in the Jordan Valley on March 10, 2016. Press service of the Israel Defense Forces. As former member of the German parliament, journalist and writer Jorgen Todenhofer said about a year ago, having visited territories controlled by the Islamic State and spending ten days in communicating with militants and their leaders: “The only country that ISIS fears is Israel.”
“They explained to me,” he continued, “that the Israeli army is too strong for them.” According to the journalist, the militants admitted that they were not afraid of either the British or the Americans, and the Israelis were the only ones they believed had enough skill and experience to wage war against their guerrilla tactics. That is why, as Todenhofer said, at the first stage, ISIS intend to capture the entire Middle Eastern region, with the exception of Israel alone.
Apparently, this is the real reason for ISIS’s stubborn reluctance to get involved with the Israelis.
The Islamic State, which now controls a significant part of the territories that previously belonged to Iraq and Syria, arose in a power vacuum, as well as due to the reluctance of neighboring states to prevent the expansion of fanatics.
In Iraq and Syria, the movement found many supporters among Sunni clans who sought to get rid of the power of minorities - the Shiites of Southern Iraq and the Alawites of Western Syria, respectively. Turkey and Saudi Arabia, at least initially, viewed ISIS as a weapon in the fight against their enemy, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Assad, in turn, managed to negotiate with ISIS to share influence, focusing on the war with other Sunni rebels. While Iran saw the destruction of borders and chaos sown by the militants of the Islamic State as a convenient stage for itself, preceding the beginning of the Iranian “liberation expansion” of the devastated territories. Even now, Russian military activity is largely directed against opposition groups threatening the coastal enclave held by Assad's government forces.
In a word, in the growing hurricane of Sunni-Shiite confrontation in the Middle East, the Islamic State, with the exception of the Kurds who are desperately fighting despite the shortage of weapons, did not find a single serious opponent who was able, or rather, willing to fight back.
And so it turned out that the mobile Caliphate horde, rapidly moving in a kind of carts - Toyota pickup trucks with heavy-caliber Russian DShK machine guns (affectionately nicknamed in the Soviet army"darlings"), managed to capture colossal spaces in a matter of months. Easily hidden across a vast area stretching from western Iraq to eastern Syria, these maneuverable forces are almost impossible to defeat with airstrikes alone, without ground operations.
At the same time, the group has virtually no chance in a frontal clash with a disciplined, trained and well-armed army. Therefore, if they attempt to cross the Israeli border, Islamic fanatics will be stopped by the forces of one helicopter flight or tank squad.
However, Israel does not neglect the threat posed by ISIS, realizing that the danger lies not in the unlikely frontal breakthrough of extremists across the border, but in the much more possible infiltration of small groups of saboteurs attacking military and civilian targets.
It is no coincidence that the 9th annual conference of the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies, held in January, was largely devoted to the threats posed by ISIS and scenarios for possible counteraction to them.
Even earlier, structural changes began in the Israeli army. As, following the collapse of Syria and Iraq, little remained of their armies, and Egypt became firmly bogged down in civil war, the strategic danger of a sudden breakthrough by large enemy formations essentially disappeared. At least in the near future, the Jewish state will be able to do without concentrating on its borders the armored forces necessary to repel a massive tank attack.
But the tactical threats emanating from small, but fanatical and unrestrained by any norms, terrorist gangs that grew up on the ruins of the Arab statehood have increased sharply. The Islamic State has become an ideological franchise. Many groups across the region pledge allegiance to ISIS leader Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, receiving financial support and reputation in return.
Soldiers of the special forces brigade "Commando". February 2016. Press service of the Israel Defense ForcesThat is why at the beginning of the year, to counter terrorists both inside and outside Israel, a new special forces brigade “Commando” was formed in the Israel Defense Forces, which included four infantry special forces (“Maglan” , "Duvdevan", "Egoz" and "Rimon"), which had previously operated as part of various military units. At the same time, Israeli reconnaissance UAVs are increasingly providing Jordan and Egypt with information about terrorists.
For Israel, it was now not the northern, but the southern border that was more dangerous. While on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, the ISIS-affiliated Yarmouk Martyrs' Brigades are waging a relentless war against their rivals, the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra militants, unable to be distracted by the Israelis in the north In the Sinai Peninsula, the Vilayat Sinai group, which joined the Islamic State at the end of 2014, has become a real threat.
Support for ISIS is steadily growing in the Palestinian Authority, whose residents are disillusioned with both the rule of Fatah in Judea and Samaria and Hamas in Gaza, as well as among Israeli Arabs. In early January, Nashat Milhem, a resident of the Arab city of Arar located near Haifa, inspired by the ideology of the Islamic State, carried out a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, killing three Israelis. Even earlier, security forces uncovered a cell of ISIS supporters among the Bedouins of the Negev.
“ISIS is already here, it’s no secret,” Israeli President Reuven Rivlin admitted in January, “and I mean not only the borders, but also the situation within them,” he emphasized.
According to Israeli intelligence estimates, about fifty Arab citizens of the country are fighting on the side of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. And although, as a representative of the Israeli security service noted in an interview with the British publication The Economist, “there are far more Swedish citizens in the ranks of ISIS than there are Israelis,” the trend of a growing threat is obvious.
The Islamic State, or more precisely, its ideology, is taking deeper roots in the Middle East. This means that the inevitability of a collision between Israel and its carriers is a matter of time, although probably not the near future.
In recent days, the Syrian army has been preparing to liberate southwestern Syria - the provinces of Daraa and Quneitra. There is a redeployment of combat units, formations and equipment. At the same time, the Syrian government a few days ago addressed all militant groups in these provinces that control certain areas of Syrian territory with a proposal for reconciliation or evacuation to the province of Idlib.
Several militant groups operate in the Syrian provinces of Daraa and Quneitra. In the very corner of Syrian territory, at the junction of the borders of Israel and Jordan, there is a group called the Yarmouk Martyrs’ Brigades, which several years ago came under the banner of ISIS (an organization banned in Russia). Being virtually completely surrounded, this group, as well as other groups of bandits, have been fighting each other and the Syrian army for many years. This fact allows us to make the assumption that they receive support from the territories of neighboring states - Israel and Jordan.
According to media reports, it is known that anti-Syrian bandits and murderers are being treated in Israel. Instead of extraditing them, placing them in displacement camps and handing them over to the Syrian government for a fair trial, as required by international conventions, Israel treats these bandits and returns them to duty. Several tens of millions of shekels have already been spent on these purposes.
A field hospital has been set up in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights to provide emergency assistance; seriously wounded bandits are then sent to Israeli hospitals for treatment. Israeli special forces (this is documented) enter Syrian territory and deliver wounded bandits from there.
There are documented facts of Syrian bandits being in possession of Israeli food and communication systems. Israeli officers - instructors and liaison officers - have been spotted in some gangs. There are numerous cases of Israeli artillery providing fire support for the fighting of Syrian bandits against the Syrian army.
Israel and Jordan have invested enormous amounts of money and resources into militants of all shapes and colors fighting in southwest Syria. Israel - medicine, communications, training officers, supplies. Jordan - the same thing, plus weapons and ammunition. If the Syrian army advances in this region of Syria and liberates Syrian territory from the bandits, all efforts of Israel and Jordan to support the Syrian bandits will be in vain.
These countries will not write off losses so easily. Jordan did all this with Saudi money, Israel with its own. It is possible that as soon as they begin fighting in southwest Syria, the state of Israel will resume its aggressive actions - both artillery and air attacks. And this factor must be taken into account by Russia and Syria when planning operations to liberate southwest Syria. Also, if certain Iranian units or units of the Lebanese Hezbollah are involved in southwestern Syria, this could also cause unjustified aggression on the part of Israel.
The State of Israel and the Syrian Arab Republic are legally at war. The leaders of the state of Israel have repeatedly carried out rocket attacks and other acts of aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic under the pretext of countering Iran's actions in Syria.
The Syrian Arab Republic has the right to invite and station military units of any state on its territory, and, roughly speaking, no wishes of the leaders of the state of Israel should be taken into account in any way. In other words, both Lebanese Hezbollah and Fatimiyoun have the right to take part in hostilities in southwestern Syria and subsequently be stationed there on a permanent basis. Iran, with the consent of Syria, can deploy any of its units, including air defense and missile systems, anywhere in Syria, including in close proximity to the borders of the state of Israel.
Someone should point out to the leaders of the state of Israel that Syria and Iran have the right to independently decide where Iranian units can and cannot be located on the territory of sovereign Syria. Moreover, the deployment of Iranian missile systems on Syrian territory in close proximity to the borders of Israel is the closest road to ending the Israeli occupation of Syrian and Palestinian territories, to the creation of an independent Palestinian state and to the establishment of general peace in the Middle East.
ISIS*- an organization whose activities are prohibited in Russia
Israel continues to put a spoke in the wheels of the operation of the Syrian government, which is trying to drive ISIS (*banned in Russia) out of southern Syria. Today, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) shot down a Syrian Sukhoi fighter jet that was on a combat mission against terrorists located in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp.
The press service of the Israeli Ministry of Defense claims that the IDF monitored the movement of the Syrian plane and shot it down with Patriot air defense systems after the Su-22 went 2 kilometers into Israeli airspace. It is also noted that before the incident, sirens were heard in the Golan Heights area - in the Israeli village of Emek HaYardena and the city of Katzrin. According to Sky News Arabia, the Sukhoi crashed in Syria, in an area under the control of the Islamic State. The fate of the pilot is unknown.
Israel's Red Lines
Apparently, the Syrian plane, before or after striking ISIS in Yarmouk, crossed into the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War. Under the 1974 agreement, a “demilitarized zone” was established in the Golan Heights under the auspices of the UN. Tel Aviv has repeatedly stated that this is a “red line” that Damascus should not cross. "The Israel Defense Forces support high level readiness and will continue to counter violations of the 1974 separation of forces agreement,” said an IDF spokesman, quoted by Interfax.
If Israel's first argument is a violation of airspace, then the second is a warning.
Throughout Tuesday, we issued warnings in several languages and in different ways not to enter our territory. The Syrian plane took off from the T4 base in Syria and quickly flew towards Israel until it was shot down.
This is confirmed by the same Israeli military man.
It's all Iran's fault
The T-4 airbase is constantly bombed by Israel, as the Iranian military and the “control center for Iranian drones” are located there, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz clarifies. Tel Aviv and Washington consider their presence not only a violation of international law, but a direct threat to Israel’s security. So the third justification could be the presence of “hostile Iranian elements” on the territory of a neighboring state - a concern that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced, including at a meeting with Vladimir Putin.
Judging from the point of view of law, yes, formally Syria violates the “demilitarization” of the Golan Heights. Although the argument “penetrated deep into Israeli territory” is also absurd, because control of the Golan Heights by Israel is considered by the world community and the UN to be an occupation of Syria.
Support for ISIS?
But if you look at the situation in the context of the fact that the Syrian Air Force is fighting against a group that is considered by everyone to be a global evil and a terrorist formation, then the IDF’s actions can be qualified as obstruction of an anti-terrorist operation.
Journalist Abbas Juma qualifies Israel's actions as a manifestation of a policy of double standards.
Immediately after today's incident, the head of the IDF press office for Arab media relations, Avichai Edri, wrote: “We do not interfere in the Syrian conflict.” This is a kind of mantra. After every aggression against Syria they say “we are not interfering in the Syrian conflict.” This is either against the militants, count the Iranians, or we are defending our space. This is an extremely two-faced position. Because in their understanding, the militants are only Hezbollah, Iranian advisers, etc. This means that when it comes to Hezbollah, they can strike, violate imaginable and inconceivable rules, and intervene in the conflict. In all other moments - no,
The expert noted.
At one of the April briefings, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, noted that convoys of convoys allegedly with humanitarian aid regularly arrive in the Yarmouk region, where terrorists, including ISIS, have settled. “The entire transfer of so-called “humanitarian aid” is controlled directly by the Americans themselves,” Zakharova added.
The bottom line...
If we continue this thought, then Israel, as an ally of the United States, is also not interested in a successful end to the Syrian conflict for Damascus. And previous bombings of Syria under the pretext of the “Iranian threat” undermined the offensive potential of the Syrian army against militants.
If Israel believes that it has the right to strike Syrian territory in order to destroy terrorists, then let's do it in all directions, including ISIS. If you shoot down a plane that was bombing ISIS, then you are helping the Islamic State,
Abbas Juma noticed.
Details of today's incident will likely be updated, with US, Russian, Israeli and Syrian officials adding their own statements. For now, the bottom line is that we have Tel Aviv’s readiness to unilaterally, without regard to either Washington or Moscow, to guard the occupied Golan Heights. Even if at the cost of this is indirect support for the afloat of the world evil called ISIS.
Stories that the Islamic State was created with the help of American intelligence services no longer surprise anyone. There is enough evidence that they participated in the creation of terrorist cells. Just remember the meeting between US Senator John McCain and IS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in May 2013.
But American interests are also protected by other countries in the Middle East. The destabilization of Syria is very beneficial, for example, to Israel: Tel Aviv in this war is pursuing the goal of weakening neighboring states as much as possible from a military point of view, since it claims to be a leader in the region.
On September 17, in the Syrian province of Kunteira, a battle took place for the city of Khan Arnabakh. ISIS militants attacked Syrian government forces. And the square where the battle took place is located 6 kilometers from the Golan Heights, which is a disputed territory between Syria and Israel. And, having repelled the attack on the border, the Syrians seemingly secured the Israeli side by eliminating a group of militants. Only the next day, an attack drone entered from Israeli territory and attacked Syrian artillery positions in the Syrian province of Quneitra.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry sent a note of protest to the UN, pointing out that with the new armed aggression, Israel essentially contributed to ISIS terrorists operating in Syria. According to a number of experts, such provocations of the Israeli side were, one way or another, paid for by American friends. After all, every year Tel Aviv receives impressive sums from the United States under the so-called military assistance agreement. The previous agreement from 2007 brought Israel about $30 billion.
Signed on September 14 in Washington, it provides for the allocation of American financial assistance in the amount of $38 billion over the next 10 years. However, many politicians do not hide their disappointment: opponents of Prime Minister Netanyahu argue that Israel could have received much more.
Israel uses generous assistance from the United States for various projects in the Middle East. For example, Lebanese media reported to the Al-Safir newspaper that the Israeli authorities are recruiting mercenaries from among the radicals in Syria near the Golan Heights. Israeli intelligence services have recruited hundreds of mercenaries in the ranks of terrorist groups, in particular Jabhat al-Nusra, and are collecting intelligence information. It is obvious that the large-scale recruitment of terrorists is in the interests of the Israeli intelligence services and, most likely, is aimed at actions against Syria in the future.
Golan Heights
By the way, Israeli intelligence services have been cooperating with Islamic State terrorists for a long time, supplying them with intelligence information! Those who are distrustful can read about this, this is last year’s UN report on the state of affairs on the Israeli-Syrian border.
This report, however, very vaguely and diplomatically writes that almost every day IS terrorists cross the demarcation line (Golan Heights) and go to Israeli checkpoints, where they are supposedly first detained and then released.
Here are the quotes:
“On October 24, a UN observation post saw 12 IDF soldiers detaining one civilian... this person was released within one hour at the same location."
“On October 27, the position showed two IDF soldiers in the area east of the technical fence returning from the Alpha side (i.e., from the Syrian side).”
“On August 28, UN personnel periodically observed armed opposition fighters communicating with IDF troops across the ceasefire line near the United Nations position.
You can generally learn a lot of interesting things from UN reports.
Here's another fact. One might say sensational. For example, in March last year, Israeli soldiers several times met trucks arriving from Syria at their checkpoints. Then these trucks returned, loaded to the top with some kind of bags.
What was in these bags? The naive will probably think that these are some kosher cookies. Experts will say that the bags contained ammunition or weapons! They will also say that “Syrian shepherds” come to visit the IDF for intelligence information. In principle, all this is said in UN reports, it’s a pity that no one reads them. If you are not lazy, you can learn a lot of new things for yourself.
By the way, from these same UN reports, which can compete with action-packed detectives, you can find out that for some reason “Syrian shepherds” often bring wounded people to Israeli checkpoints, who then disappear in an unknown direction. The naive will say that Syrian shepherds bring militants who heroically fought against the “despot” Assad in the hope that the Jews will simply treat them out of compassion. Why not? Even the “Syrian shepherds” are aware that Israel has high-quality medicine. But experts will answer naively that Israel has been treating Islamic State terrorists in its clinics for a long time.
By the way, not only specialists, but even Jewish journalists know about this. Back in 2013, the Israeli newspapers Yediot Ahronot and Haaretz wrote about how 300 members of the al-Nusra Front (an organization that is part of the Islamic State) were treated in hospitals in northern Israel.
Let's add to this the constant aggression on the part of the IDF (a Syrian fighter was shot down in September last year) against the Syrian army. The same one who fights against ISIS and for Bashar al-Assad.
And we get an oil painting: Israel, whose people had to endure the Holocaust, today itself supports ISIS! Terrorists, whose atrocities are in no way better than that what the Nazis did 70 years ago. Terrorists who perpetrated a modern holocaust on all infidels: from Yezidis and Christians to “incorrect” Muslims, which in its cruelty is in no way inferior to the Nazi gas chambers.
The main military news of the morning - Syrian air defense forces on the night of Tuesday, September 13, shot down a fighter and an unmanned aerial vehicle in the province of Quneitra in the southwest of the country. aircraft Israeli Air Force. This was reported by the Syrian state news agency SANA.
It is clarified that the air defense forces were deployed in response to an air raid carried out on one of the positions of the Syrian army in the region. According to the military, Israeli aircraft were destroyed west of the village of Sasaa...
It remains to wait for confirmation or refutation of this statement by the Israeli side. But regardless of this, I would like to say a few words on the topic.
In the strangest way, during all three years of active hostilities, militants from ISIS and other structures of the “Salafi international” never attacked either Israel or Israelis. Moreover, on the very border of Israel with Syria and Jordan, one of the ISIS factions, the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigades, is located today, which occupied the Syrian part of the Golan Heights, and now the ISIS flag flies on the very border of Israel. But, strangely, in all the years they have not fired a single shot towards Israel - an almost idyllic calm reigns there.
Why are the ultra-Islamist militants, who proclaim as enemies anyone who in any way does not fit the canons of Salafi dogma, who declared Shiite Muslims and representatives of other Islamic movements, not to mention all Christians in general, their mortal enemies, categorically do not notice and ignore Israel? who has been waging continuous wars against the Islamic states of the Middle East for almost seventy years?
The attitude of official Tel Aviv towards Islamic extremists is also unclear and inexplicable. Usually irreconcilable to any terrorist threats and even using “preventive strikes” to prevent them, Israel today almost favorably watches the actions of entire armies of Islamic militants near its borders, avoiding any participation in international operations against ISIS and other radical groups.
Moreover, reports from UN observers in the region regularly indicate that the Israeli military has been in regular contact with ISIS field commanders since May 2013. The Israelis caught red-handed initially explained such contacts with Islamists by the need to provide medical and other humanitarian assistance to the civilian population of border villages, but UN observers refuted this version, as they received direct evidence of cooperation between IDF representatives and ISIS fighters. Deliveries of unspecified cargo to ISIS militants from Israeli territory under IDF control were recorded, as well as regular provision of military medical care terrorist units.
There is more and more information about large-scale hidden support by Israel for the project of the so-called “Islamic state”. And it seems that the Israeli elite has firmly established itself in the position “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” contrary to its stated different levels: from official to “expert” - support for the actions of the anti-terrorist coalition in general and Russia itself in particular. Supporting ISIS today allows Israel to solve the problem of neutralizing the influence of Iran and Syria - its last irreconcilable opponents in the Middle East. The previous experience of the “purges” of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, as a result of which both of these states, which previously took anti-Israeli positions, ceased to exist and turned into territories of chaos, was considered successful. The same scenario is now actively supported and implemented by Israel in Syria. The destruction of a unified Syrian state, its split into several segments warring with each other will allow Israel not only to get rid of the Assad government in Damascus and push the Iranians out of Syria, but also to cut off from Iran and isolate its main “headache” - the Shiite regions of Lebanon, in order to finally clear them of Hezbollah.
Why is Israel not afraid of ISIS? Is it not for the very reason that ISIS and terrorist organizations close to it do not threaten either Saudi Arabia or Qatar - those states that actually created, raised, financed, armed and sent this bloody monster to the Arab and entire Islamic world?
It is no secret that for the last thirty years, Israeli intelligence services have been closely cooperating with the Saudis, coordinating their actions with them.
It is no secret that Israeli financial structures are firmly affiliated with Saudi and Qatari financial centers, and the political leadership of Israel, Qatar and Saudi Arabia has long communicated with each other exclusively in a friendly tone and constantly talks about strategic partnership.
It is no secret that all these countries have a single patron and “patron” - the United States, which also stood at the origins of the creation of ISIS.
The conclusion suggests itself that Israel today is not an isolated, detached observer of the events taking place in the “Greater Middle East”, but a shadow puppeteer to whom the threads of control of Islamic radical groups stretch, tightly “linked” with other “customers” and sponsors of the “Salafi international” : USA, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
It is quite obvious that with the beginning of the civil war in Syria, a “golden time” began for the Israeli intelligence services - they opened a large-scale hunt on the territory of this country for their enemies from Hezbollah and the Iranian intelligence services, with whom Israel has long-standing scores to settle. At the same time, Israel generally ceased to have any regard for international law. Its aircraft regularly carry out airstrikes on Syrian territory, invading its airspace for tens of kilometers. His agents are actively operating on Syrian territory and conducting special operations here.
In May of this year, 55-year-old Amin Badreddin, the head of Hezbollah’s counterintelligence and the group’s second-in-command after its leader Hassan Nasrallah, was killed during a targeted strike by Israeli aircraft. And this is not the first time that Israeli intelligence services have been credited with one or another blow to the top of the Shiite group Hezbollah. In February 2008, Imad Mughniyeh, one of the founders and leaders of the movement, was liquidated in Damascus. Then the Hezbollah leadership also accused Israel of killing its leader.
Another liquidation, which also had an Israeli trace, was carried out on January 18, 2015 in the area of the Quneitra border crossing in the Golan Heights. As a result of an air strike on Syrian territory, 25-year-old Jihad Mughniyeh, the eldest son of Imad Mughniyeh, was killed. The year before, he was appointed commander of Hezbollah forces in the Syrian part of the Golan Heights. Several high-ranking Iranian officers were killed along with him, including General Muhamad Allahdadi.
And in May 2015, under unclear circumstances, Marwan Mughniyeh, one of Hezbollah’s field commanders and cousin of Imad Mughniyeh, was killed. It was reported that this was also an Israeli special operation.
So, it is more than obvious that Israel is making full use of civil war in Syria to fight their opponents on the territory of sovereign Syria...
Vladislav Shurygin
