Source: TheLastAmericanVagabond.com
Tensions continue to escalate inside Syria, following another round of unprovoked Israeli airstrikes on Monday night, which killed two civilians in Damascus. Israel has carried out four separate aerial assaults on Syria, since Thursday last week, with tensions continuing to rise as Iran vows to respond to the killing of its citizens in one of the deadly attacks.
During the past few weeks, Syria has again found itself center stage to regional rivalries, after its internal conflict came to a stalemate back in 2018. Although Israeli and US airstrikes have been a regular occurrence inside Syria, since the beginning of the war in 2011, the most recent developments indicate a coming change to the status quo. The latest attack on Syria targeted the Damascus international airport and killed two Syrian civilians, which was addressed with an unusually aggressive air defense response from Syria.
Perhaps the most concerning development in recent days, has been the US’ decision to reposition its USS George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier closer to Syria. According to Deputy Pentagon press secretary, Sabrina Singh, “increased attacks from IRGC affiliated groups targeting our service members across Syria” led them to make this decision, as a “response” to these attacks. This here is referring to an escalation, that started in late March, after a drone strike had killed an American contractor and injured a number of service members, to which President Joe Biden claimed a “right of defense” and directly ordered missile strikes on Eastern Syria. The US claims that the drone was of Iranian origin and launched by an Iran-backed militia, not specifying which one. Interestingly, in response to this, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and allied militias then decided to open fire on a number of US bases that are located in North-Eastern Syria. The US admitted that a number of traumatic brain injuries had been inflicted following the Syrian military’s response.
However, in the past weeks, the primary escalation has come from the Western side of Syria, with illegal Israeli airstrikes repeatedly targeting the Syrian Capital, Damascus. The US, having moved its aircraft carrier closer to Syria, doesn’t seem to indicate they are worried about an escalation in the East of the country alone, but instead that they are perhaps worried about the response that Iran has vowed, in retaliation to Israel’s killing of Milad Heidari and Meqdad Mehqani, both advisors working for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Israel has killed IRGC members in Syria before, to which the IRGC has responded with naval attacks on Israeli shipping in the Persian Gulf area and a ballistic missile strike against Mossad operatives in northern Iraq. What seems to separate this case is that the Iran has made a big deal of the deaths, holding a public funeral in Tehran for the two IRGC advisors, attended by tens of thousands. This indicates that they are taking this incident seriously, something that worries Tel Aviv and perhaps the US government as well….