IDLIB — Mohammed al-Sakaf was confident when he said that the drone launched by the Iranian militias, which injured his children while they were working in the olive farm south of Idlib, is the same type of drone that Iran launched on Israel earlier this month.
In an interview with Daraj, he asked: “Why was it unable to reach Israel on the night of April 14?”
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Al-Sakkaf’s inquiry is a legitimate one since Iran’s missiles and drones didn’t hit any “meaningful” target in Israel. Most of the missiles and drones were intercepted and dropped over Jordan and Syria. A few reached Israel, according to the pictures published by the Israeli army.
Iran launched hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles that sought to overwhelm Israel’s air defenses earlier this month. It was the first air attack on Israel by a foreign power since Iraq’s late leader Saddam Hussein launched Scud missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War.
Israeli air defenses and fighter jets, backed by the U.S., the United Kingdom and neighboring Jordan, shot down the vast majority of the incoming fire.
The attack, which caused minor damage at the Nevatim air base in southern Israel, was a response to an Israeli strike on April 1 targeting the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus, which killed two Guard generals and others.
Israel-Iran farce
Syria’s government forces and allied Iranian militias have escalated their drone attacks on civilians.
Over the past three months, civil defense teams in Syria documented more than 60 attacks by explosive-laden drones on residential areas in northwestern Syria. At least 11 people have been killed, and 32 others, including four children and a woman, were wounded.
In a statement on April 16, the civil defense said government forces have used explosive-laden drones in a systematic policy to prolong the war and kill more civilians, at a time when the humanitarian response is declining, and the international community is increasingly ignoring people’s needs in northwestern Syria.
Less than two days after the Iranian attack on Israel, Iran-backed militias in Syria launched a drone attack on the city of Darat Azza, west of Aleppo. Five civilians, including children, were wounded in that attack.
Among the wounded was Abdel-Rahman al-Sattar, a 12-year-old boy, whose dreams of education and better life were shattered only because he and his family were in a place attacked by the so-called axis of resistance.
Syrians, who were repeatedly attacked by the Iranian-backed militias, followed the Iranian operation against Israel; and the propaganda that accompanied it. It was a farce, as described by researcher Turki al-Mustafa.
“Iran and Israel have the same targets in the region. They can’t hurt each other, and both partnered in protecting Bashar al-Assad,” said al-Mustafa, adding that both Iran and Israel believe that Assad’s rule of Syria has served their regional interests.
He argues that Iran was forced to respond to the consulate attack to save face before the resistance groups and their supporters, he argued.
Escalation in Syria
Many countries — especially Western countries — stand with Israel against Iran. They were ready to battle Iran if it crossed redlines in its response to Israel’s attack on the consulate.
Those countries, however, remained silent as Iranian-made drones targeted people in northern Syria for three months. Iran used the same drones to attack Israel — the same weapon its allied militias use to attack and kill Syrians.
Many farmers were attacked while working on their farms. At least 6 people, half of them children, were injured in a recent drone attack while working in their farm in the Sahl al-Ghab area, according to farmer Yasser Abdel Latif. Four vehicles were also damaged in the attack, he said.
No casualties were reported from Iran’s attack on Israel.
Iran announced the timing of the attack in advance. This gave Israel and its allies time to intercept and shoot down the drones and missiles, as if Iran’s leaders didn’t want the drones and missiles to reach Israel.
Muhammad Zakaria Junaidi’s children are still in need of medical treatment after they were wounded in a drone attack in the town of Ziyara, west of Hama province in mid February. The drone hit them while they were on a motorcycle with their father.
The drone is equipped with a camera in order to identify its target. It is operated by a pilot on the ground who should have seen the children on the motorcycle with their father from his control room.
He is the same pilot and soldier who didn’t think one day to counter the Israeli jets and drones that regularly fly and bomb targets inside Syria.
While Iran drones usually struck Syrian civilians in northwestern Syria, such as the attack on Darat Azza which left five critically wounded, many began to raise this question:
“How can Iranian drones not achieve their target in Israel, while they always hit their targets, who are civilians, in northwestern Syria?”
