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Present and former US officers expressed fears on Tuesday that Israeli airstrikes on the Iranian embassy compound in Syria might escalate hostilities within the area, and result in retaliatory assaults towards Israel and its US ally.
Three generals and 4 different officers from Iran's Quds Drive had been killed within the assault on Monday, officers mentioned, dealing a critical blow to the power, the exterior navy and the intelligence service of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Ralph Goff, a former senior CIA officer who served within the Center East, known as Israel's strike “extremely reckless.”
Mr Goff mentioned, “This can solely end in escalating tensions by Iran and its proxies, which may be very harmful for US troops within the area”, who may very well be focused in retaliatory strikes by Tehran's proxies.
In reality, after the Israeli assault on the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday, US troops based mostly in southeastern Syria shot down an assault drone, a Protection Division official mentioned. It was not clear whether or not the drone was supposed to focus on US forces, mentioned the official, who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate operational particulars. If that had been to occur, it could be the primary assault by Iran-backed militias towards US troops in Iraq or Syria in almost two months. No accidents or harm had been reported.
The official mentioned there have been no further assaults in a single day, however Pentagon officers had been intently monitoring the state of affairs.
Mr Goff mentioned the lethal assault in Syria was a part of Israel's “long-term technique to humiliate” Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Quds Drive unit and “punish them for his or her ongoing plots to kill or kidnap Israeli Jews around the globe.” Appropriate for “doing”.
Within the years-long shadow struggle between Iran and Israel, Syria has been an important area for Israel because it has served to impair Iran's means to maneuver superior weapons near Israel's borders by land and air.
Dana Stroll, previously the Pentagon's prime Center East coverage official who’s now on the Washington Institute for Close to East Coverage, mentioned, “Yesterday's strike is a major escalation and threatens to push an already unstable, unstable area into full-scale struggle.” There’s a danger.” “That is the Israeli model of the American assault on Qassem Soleimani,” he mentioned, referring to the previous long-term Quds Drive chief who was killed in a US drone strike close to Baghdad airport in 2020.