The recent
drone attack on an Iranian military compound in Isfahan was not the
first of its kind and is unlikely to be the last. It was one of many that have
hit Iranian arms depots and convoys across the region, including in Syria and
Lebanon.
اضافة اعلان
Just hours after the January 29 attack in Iran, for example, trucks
that had crossed from Iraq into Syria were also reportedly attacked with drones. While many see these
strikes as part of an undeclared war on Iran’s nuclear program, they should be
viewed more as a regional counterterrorism effort.
Iran, for its part, seems to have been too embarrassed to admit the extent of damage these strikes have caused.
Israel has rarely admitted carrying out these attacks, but it is
widely understood that
Israel is behind them and that the goal is to prevent
Iran from building up the asymmetric war capabilities of its militias.
According to US law, “premeditated, politically
motivated, violence”, committed by “subnational groups (militias) against
non-combatants”, are acts of terrorism. This legal definition makes it hard to
argue against the fact that Israel is helping combat terrorism across the
Middle East.
Iran, for its part, seems to have been too embarrassed to admit
the extent of damage these strikes have caused.
Tehran has downplayed them,
while its militias have often denied that they even took place.
In Syria, Bashar Al-Assad’s weak grip on power has forced Israel
to act with a high frequency to prevent Iran from building a military
infrastructure in Syria’s southwest — a region that shares a border
with Israel. At first, the Assad regime tried to hide the Israeli strikes,
mainly through claiming that the explosions were caused by an electrical short
circuit, an explanation that invited widespread sarcasm. As it became known that
Israel was targeting Iranian militias in Syria, the
Assad regime stopped
commenting. Israel, for its part, started to open up about the strikes, without elaborating on any
one of them in particular.
Hezbollah’s domainIn Lebanon, things are different. Iran-backed Hezbollah rules with
an iron fist and an overt Israeli strike might ignite a full-scale war that
neither side wants. Hence, bombings targeting Hezbollah’s weapons caches have
remained mysterious.
Israel has long accused
Hezbollah of storing weapons in Lebanon’s
civilian neighborhoods. During the 2006 war between the two sides, Israel hit
Lebanese houses, saying that it was responding to spots from where Hezbollah
had launched missiles.
In Lebanon, things are different. Iran-backed Hezbollah rules with an iron fist and an overt Israeli strike might ignite a full-scale war that neither side wants.
In September 2018, Israel released photos of facilities located
close to Beirut airport, where Hezbollah “converted regular missiles into
precision-guided ones.” Two months later, Israel “exposed and destroyed”
a series of tunnels dug “from within
civilian houses in Lebanon into Israel”. These were the only times when Israel
talked publicly about Hezbollah’s military sites, until December, when Israel threatened “to strike the Beirut
airport over Iran’s arms shipments”.
In September 2020, a weapons depot exploded in the southern
Lebanese village of Ain Qana. The pro-Iran militia borrowed one of Assad’s
favorite excuses, blaming an electrical short.
More explosions, more ‘electrical shorts’Since December 2021, a series of explosions have rocked Lebanon.
One was heard in Janta, a Hezbollah stronghold in the east. Two weeks later,
locals near the southern village of Homeen were woken by an explosion. Six days
later, a bang was heard near the coastal city of Tyre.
Hezbollah reacted the same way to all these blasts. It sealed off the area,
sent in its own ambulances to transport the dead and the injured to undisclosed
medical facilities, and invented cover stories. In Homeen, Hezbollah said an
overheated generator detonated its diesel reservoir. The last of the explosions went off last week,
again in Homeen, where a Hezbollah “social services” office was
hit.
Hezbollah reacted the same way to all these blasts. It sealed off the area, sent in its own ambulances… and invented cover stories.
Hezbollah is not the only pro-Iran militia in Lebanon to see its
arms caches go up in flames. In December 2021, an explosion rocked a Hamas
weapons depot at the Burj Shemali
Palestinian refugee camp, near Tyre. Hamas
too blamed, you guessed it, an electrical short. A day later, the Palestinian
organization, which is designated as a terrorist group by the US, Israel, and
Europe, held a funeral for its militants killed in that “short”.
Like Iran, Hezbollah has been suppressing news about explosions to
avoid war that could ravage an already falling apart Lebanon. The bombings have
also shown that Iran and its militias are heavily infiltrated by foreign
intelligence agencies, and that they have been irresponsibly storing
arms and
ammunition in civilian neighborhoods.
Filling in the American voidWhoever has been continuously clipping the wings of the pro-Iran
militias has been doing so impressively, selecting secret targets, bombing them
discreetly when needed and less so when circumstances — like in Syria — permit.
Without the ongoing attacks, like the one on Isfahan and the
airstrikes that followed on convoys that crossed from Iraq into Syria, pro-Iran
terrorist groups would have improved their capabilities enormously. Not long
ago, the US was the one that led such counterterrorism, but has now given up on
the role. Israel, or whoever is responsible for bombing Iran and its militias,
has stepped up to fill in the
American void. No wonder Arab capitals are
gravitating toward Israel seeking alliance.
Hussain Abdul-Hussain is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy. Syndication Bureau.
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