4 sept 2018
Senior military source says some 800 missiles were launched in strikes mainly carried out by IAF; army source also says escalation of conflict more likely than long-term ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
A senior IDF source revealed on Tuesday that over the past year-and-a-half the army has carried out approximately 200 attacks in Syria.
According to the official, the strikes targeted mainly advanced weapon systems and infrastructure sites belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards located in Syrian territory.
In total, some 800 missiles and bombs were launched at targets on Syrian soil, the majority by IAF fighter jets.
Israel has repeatedly stated that it will not tolerate an Iranian military presence of any kind in Syria, which has been supporting President Bashar Assad’s regime and abetting terror proxies such as Hezbollah in the ongoing civil war.
According to regional sources, Israel began carrying out military strikes in Syria in 2013 against suspected arms transfers and deployments by Iranian forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies, both Damascus's partners in Syria's civil war.
While Israel rarely takes responsibility for such strikes, the IDF has at times admitted to hitting arms convoys heading for the Shi’ite Hezbollah organization.
In addition, sporadic errant rocket fire on Israel’s Golan Heights in Syria’s civil war, which had claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and made millions homeless, has been met by the IDF with strikes.
Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz used a speech on Tuesday to give a more general summary of Syria missions, prompted by a military briefing given to local media earlier in the day.
"Only just now it was published—in the name of military sources, so I can quote it too—that in the last two years Israel has taken military action more than 200 times within Syria itself," Katz told a conference hosted by the IDC Herzliya college.
"Understand the significance of this matter in terms of preserving the red line, preventing the things that Iran has done, is doing and is trying to do against Israel from Syria."
Asked to confirm Katz's comments, an Israeli military spokeswoman said Israel had carried out around 200 attacks within Syria over the past year and a half.
Hamas replenishing rocket stockpile
As negotiations continue between Israel and Hamas to achieve a long-term ceasefire on the southern border, which have been accompanied by an unofficial moratorium in the launching of incendiary balloons and rockets from the Gaza Strip, the IDF still believes that the talks will more likely end in an escalation of hostilities.
The most sensitive issues are still far from being resolved, such as Hamas’s demand to expand Gaza’s fishing zone, Israel’s demand that the terror group release two captive Israeli citizens and the bodies of two fallen IDF soldiers in return for the building of sea ports or airports for Gaza in the Sinai.
According to the IDF, four years after Operation Protective Edge, Hamas is still uninterested in seeking a military conflict with Israel, but it has fully replenished its rocket supply that was decimated during the 2014 summer offensive. However, the effects have proven longer lasting of the IDF’s strikes on Hamas’s naval capabilities and its underground terror network.
In addition, the IDF has recently completed a third of its subterranean anti-tunnel barrier, which by the end of the year will be finished at a length of 65 kilometers along the Gaza border.
Over the last year, the IDF has discovered and destroyed around 15 terror tunnels that had been dug into Israeli territory.
According to the IDF assessment, the terror group still has a single number of terror tunnels that are yet to be neutralized.
In addition, as IDF source say that those who suggest applying massive military pressure on the strip will lead to a cessation of terror activity, is mistaken.
“The terror accompanies Israel since the state was established and it will continue to accompany us for years to come. We are working against it in a decisive, systematic and ethical manner. Flattening entire neighborhoods will eventually lead to the dismantling of the army and society,” asserted the source.
“Those who say that more shells will stop the terror are selling delusions to the general public,” the source concluded.
A senior IDF source revealed on Tuesday that over the past year-and-a-half the army has carried out approximately 200 attacks in Syria.
According to the official, the strikes targeted mainly advanced weapon systems and infrastructure sites belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards located in Syrian territory.
In total, some 800 missiles and bombs were launched at targets on Syrian soil, the majority by IAF fighter jets.
Israel has repeatedly stated that it will not tolerate an Iranian military presence of any kind in Syria, which has been supporting President Bashar Assad’s regime and abetting terror proxies such as Hezbollah in the ongoing civil war.
According to regional sources, Israel began carrying out military strikes in Syria in 2013 against suspected arms transfers and deployments by Iranian forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies, both Damascus's partners in Syria's civil war.
While Israel rarely takes responsibility for such strikes, the IDF has at times admitted to hitting arms convoys heading for the Shi’ite Hezbollah organization.
In addition, sporadic errant rocket fire on Israel’s Golan Heights in Syria’s civil war, which had claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and made millions homeless, has been met by the IDF with strikes.
Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz used a speech on Tuesday to give a more general summary of Syria missions, prompted by a military briefing given to local media earlier in the day.
"Only just now it was published—in the name of military sources, so I can quote it too—that in the last two years Israel has taken military action more than 200 times within Syria itself," Katz told a conference hosted by the IDC Herzliya college.
"Understand the significance of this matter in terms of preserving the red line, preventing the things that Iran has done, is doing and is trying to do against Israel from Syria."
Asked to confirm Katz's comments, an Israeli military spokeswoman said Israel had carried out around 200 attacks within Syria over the past year and a half.
Hamas replenishing rocket stockpile
As negotiations continue between Israel and Hamas to achieve a long-term ceasefire on the southern border, which have been accompanied by an unofficial moratorium in the launching of incendiary balloons and rockets from the Gaza Strip, the IDF still believes that the talks will more likely end in an escalation of hostilities.
The most sensitive issues are still far from being resolved, such as Hamas’s demand to expand Gaza’s fishing zone, Israel’s demand that the terror group release two captive Israeli citizens and the bodies of two fallen IDF soldiers in return for the building of sea ports or airports for Gaza in the Sinai.
According to the IDF, four years after Operation Protective Edge, Hamas is still uninterested in seeking a military conflict with Israel, but it has fully replenished its rocket supply that was decimated during the 2014 summer offensive. However, the effects have proven longer lasting of the IDF’s strikes on Hamas’s naval capabilities and its underground terror network.
In addition, the IDF has recently completed a third of its subterranean anti-tunnel barrier, which by the end of the year will be finished at a length of 65 kilometers along the Gaza border.
Over the last year, the IDF has discovered and destroyed around 15 terror tunnels that had been dug into Israeli territory.
According to the IDF assessment, the terror group still has a single number of terror tunnels that are yet to be neutralized.
In addition, as IDF source say that those who suggest applying massive military pressure on the strip will lead to a cessation of terror activity, is mistaken.
“The terror accompanies Israel since the state was established and it will continue to accompany us for years to come. We are working against it in a decisive, systematic and ethical manner. Flattening entire neighborhoods will eventually lead to the dismantling of the army and society,” asserted the source.
“Those who say that more shells will stop the terror are selling delusions to the general public,” the source concluded.
In strike that RT reports killed 2 people and wounded at least 5, state news agency says air defenses 'downed a number of rockets fired by the Israeli enemy', claiming Iranian targets were the objective; report comes shortly after Israeli military official claims IDF attacked approximately 200 targets in Syria over the last year-and-a-half.
Fighter jets struck targets in Syria's Hama countryside, Syrian state news agency SANA said on Tuesday, in an attack Syria swiftly attributed to Israel.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the explosions were heard in the area between Masyaf and Wadi al-Uyoun near Hama city.
According to RT in Arabic, two people were killed in the attack and at least five were wounded.
The Lebanon-based and Hezbollah-affiliated Al Mayadeen news channel also reported the airstrikes, while another report issued later from Syria said that the strikes had been aimed at Iranian targets.
According to opposition officials, the targets included a center for scientific research in the Masayaf area, a storage warehouse for scientific research, and other security-related facilities.
SANA said Syrian air defences confronted and downed several rockets fired by Israeli planes near the city of Hama on Tuesday.
"Air defenses downed a number of rockets fired by the Israeli enemy in the Wadi al-Uyoun area in the Hama countryside," SANA said.
Citing a military source SANA said that Israeli aircraft had targeted "our military positions in the provinces of Tartous and Hama".
"The enemy missiles were dealt with and some of them were shot down," SANA said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head Rami Abderahman said the attack had also targeted around the coastal city of Baniyas for the first time, with two rockets hitting around one kilometre from an oil refinery.
An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.
Syrian state television said air defences downed five rockets.
SANA said the planes had come at a low altitude from west of neighbouring Lebanon's coastal capital Beirut.
Al-Mayadeen news said Israeli fighter planes released countermeasures against anti-aircraft fire "and withdrew towards the sea at the same time as the sounds of explosions were heard in Hama countryside."
The alleged strike comes days after Syrian state media said loud blasts coming from an airbase early on Sunday were from an explosion at an ammunitions dump caused by an electrical problem, but an official in the regional alliance backing Damascus said they were from Israeli strikes.
Opposition leaders claimed that a weapons depot situated in the Mezzeh airbase in the capital belonging to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s army was the target of the the attack.
The airbase has been targeted in a number of airstrikes in recent years that the government has blamed on Israel.
Fighter jets struck targets in Syria's Hama countryside, Syrian state news agency SANA said on Tuesday, in an attack Syria swiftly attributed to Israel.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the explosions were heard in the area between Masyaf and Wadi al-Uyoun near Hama city.
According to RT in Arabic, two people were killed in the attack and at least five were wounded.
The Lebanon-based and Hezbollah-affiliated Al Mayadeen news channel also reported the airstrikes, while another report issued later from Syria said that the strikes had been aimed at Iranian targets.
According to opposition officials, the targets included a center for scientific research in the Masayaf area, a storage warehouse for scientific research, and other security-related facilities.
SANA said Syrian air defences confronted and downed several rockets fired by Israeli planes near the city of Hama on Tuesday.
"Air defenses downed a number of rockets fired by the Israeli enemy in the Wadi al-Uyoun area in the Hama countryside," SANA said.
Citing a military source SANA said that Israeli aircraft had targeted "our military positions in the provinces of Tartous and Hama".
"The enemy missiles were dealt with and some of them were shot down," SANA said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head Rami Abderahman said the attack had also targeted around the coastal city of Baniyas for the first time, with two rockets hitting around one kilometre from an oil refinery.
An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.
Syrian state television said air defences downed five rockets.
SANA said the planes had come at a low altitude from west of neighbouring Lebanon's coastal capital Beirut.
Al-Mayadeen news said Israeli fighter planes released countermeasures against anti-aircraft fire "and withdrew towards the sea at the same time as the sounds of explosions were heard in Hama countryside."
The alleged strike comes days after Syrian state media said loud blasts coming from an airbase early on Sunday were from an explosion at an ammunitions dump caused by an electrical problem, but an official in the regional alliance backing Damascus said they were from Israeli strikes.
Opposition leaders claimed that a weapons depot situated in the Mezzeh airbase in the capital belonging to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s army was the target of the the attack.
The airbase has been targeted in a number of airstrikes in recent years that the government has blamed on Israel.
3 sept 2018
Israeli Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, threatened on Monday that Israel might attack any suspected Iranian military assets in Iraq as it has already done in Syria.
Avigdor Lieberman hinted during a press conference in Jerusalem, on Monday, saying "we are certainly monitoring everything that is happening in Syria, and regarding Iranian threats we are not limiting ourselves just to Syrian territory. This also needs to be clear."
When asked if Iraq is included, he responded by saying "I am saying that we will contend with any Iranian threat, and it doesn't matter from where it comes, Israel is freed."
Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes against arms transfers and deployments by Iran and its Lebanese ally, the Hezbollah militia, fearing the threat across its border.
Lieberman confirmed that Israel will also be following any political developments in Iraq's capital, Baghdad.
Avigdor Lieberman hinted during a press conference in Jerusalem, on Monday, saying "we are certainly monitoring everything that is happening in Syria, and regarding Iranian threats we are not limiting ourselves just to Syrian territory. This also needs to be clear."
When asked if Iraq is included, he responded by saying "I am saying that we will contend with any Iranian threat, and it doesn't matter from where it comes, Israel is freed."
Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes against arms transfers and deployments by Iran and its Lebanese ally, the Hezbollah militia, fearing the threat across its border.
Lieberman confirmed that Israel will also be following any political developments in Iraq's capital, Baghdad.
22 aug 2018
US national security advisor says Washington understands 'the Israeli claim that it has annexed the Golan Heights' but 'there's no change in the US position for now'; charges that UNRWA 'violates standard international law on the status of refugees.'
The Trump administration is not discussing possible US recognition of Israel's claim of sovereignty over the Golan Heights, US National Security Adviser John Bolton said.
Israel captured much of the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it in a move not endorsed internationally.
In May, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz said that US recognition could be forthcoming within months.
"I've heard the idea being suggested but there's no discussion of it, no decision within the US government," Bolton told Reuters during a visit to Israel.
"Obviously we understand the Israeli claim that it has annexed the Golan Heights—we understand their position—but there's no change in the US position for now."
Palestinians seek other territories that Israel captured in 1967—the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem—for a future state. US-backed talks on that goal stalled in 2014.
The Trump administration has tried to restart the diplomacy but has been cold-shouldered by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas since it recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital last December.
Washington has also signaled possible accommodation with Israel's West Bank settlements, dropping the term "occupied" from some US documentation about the territory. Most world powers deem the settlements illegal.
Asked whether the Trump administration envisaged Palestinian statehood as the way forward, Bolton sounded circumspect.
"I think it's been the US view for a long time that ultimately Israelis and Palestinians are going to have to agree on this," he said. "Nobody's going to impose a peace in that respect."
Whether peace talks with Abbas could resume was "up to him," Bolton said.
The Trump adviser was more forthright about Washington's trimming of funds for United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which extends aid to Palestinians displaced by the 1948 War of Independence and to millions of their descendants.
"UNRWA is a failed mechanism. It violates standard international law on the status of refugees. UNRWA's program is the only one in history based on the assumption that refugee status is hereditary, and I think it is long overdue that we have taken steps to reduce funding," Bolton said.
UNRWA and the Palestinians have warned that the cuts could exacerbate hardship in Gaza, an enclave that has been under Israeli and Egypt blockades designed to isolate its Islamist Hamas rulers. Abbas, Hamas' Palestinian rival, has also restricted funding to Gaza.
Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, sought to place the onus for Gaza's plight on Hamas, and disputed the linkage between the UNRWA budget and Palestinian wellbeing.
"Much of UNRWA's expenses really go to perpetuating the refugee status of the Palestinian people, and I think that's a mistake. I think it's a mistake from a humanitarian point of view ... a perpetuation of an unnatural status," he said.
"I think what we want to see for Palestinians is real, gainful employment," Bolton said, echoing calls by Washington and Israel for economic betterment of the West Bank and Gaza. "Unless you have functioning economies, you are never going to have social and political stability."
The Trump administration is not discussing possible US recognition of Israel's claim of sovereignty over the Golan Heights, US National Security Adviser John Bolton said.
Israel captured much of the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it in a move not endorsed internationally.
In May, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz said that US recognition could be forthcoming within months.
"I've heard the idea being suggested but there's no discussion of it, no decision within the US government," Bolton told Reuters during a visit to Israel.
"Obviously we understand the Israeli claim that it has annexed the Golan Heights—we understand their position—but there's no change in the US position for now."
Palestinians seek other territories that Israel captured in 1967—the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem—for a future state. US-backed talks on that goal stalled in 2014.
The Trump administration has tried to restart the diplomacy but has been cold-shouldered by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas since it recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital last December.
Washington has also signaled possible accommodation with Israel's West Bank settlements, dropping the term "occupied" from some US documentation about the territory. Most world powers deem the settlements illegal.
Asked whether the Trump administration envisaged Palestinian statehood as the way forward, Bolton sounded circumspect.
"I think it's been the US view for a long time that ultimately Israelis and Palestinians are going to have to agree on this," he said. "Nobody's going to impose a peace in that respect."
Whether peace talks with Abbas could resume was "up to him," Bolton said.
The Trump adviser was more forthright about Washington's trimming of funds for United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which extends aid to Palestinians displaced by the 1948 War of Independence and to millions of their descendants.
"UNRWA is a failed mechanism. It violates standard international law on the status of refugees. UNRWA's program is the only one in history based on the assumption that refugee status is hereditary, and I think it is long overdue that we have taken steps to reduce funding," Bolton said.
UNRWA and the Palestinians have warned that the cuts could exacerbate hardship in Gaza, an enclave that has been under Israeli and Egypt blockades designed to isolate its Islamist Hamas rulers. Abbas, Hamas' Palestinian rival, has also restricted funding to Gaza.
Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, sought to place the onus for Gaza's plight on Hamas, and disputed the linkage between the UNRWA budget and Palestinian wellbeing.
"Much of UNRWA's expenses really go to perpetuating the refugee status of the Palestinian people, and I think that's a mistake. I think it's a mistake from a humanitarian point of view ... a perpetuation of an unnatural status," he said.
"I think what we want to see for Palestinians is real, gainful employment," Bolton said, echoing calls by Washington and Israel for economic betterment of the West Bank and Gaza. "Unless you have functioning economies, you are never going to have social and political stability."
11 aug 2018
Syrian air defenses allegedly intercepted an Israeli warplane west of the Syrian capital of Damascus on predawn Saturday.
The SANA Syrian news agency reported that Syrian air defenses were used against a "hostile" warplane penetrating the Syrian airspace.
Sources said that the air defenses allegedly intercepted an Israeli warplane, that penetrated Syrian airspace, coming from across the Lebanese border, in the Die al-Ashair area, west of Damascus.
SANA reported that Israel was to blame for the recent incursions, saying that "in the past few weeks, the Israeli enemy has attacked military positions."
A spokesperson for the Israeli army said it did not comment on foreign reports.
A similar incident was reported about a week ago by Syrian news outlets, saying that the Syrian air defenses intercepted and destroyed an unidentified target, west of Damascus.
Sources later confirmed that the target was not Israeli.
The SANA Syrian news agency reported that Syrian air defenses were used against a "hostile" warplane penetrating the Syrian airspace.
Sources said that the air defenses allegedly intercepted an Israeli warplane, that penetrated Syrian airspace, coming from across the Lebanese border, in the Die al-Ashair area, west of Damascus.
SANA reported that Israel was to blame for the recent incursions, saying that "in the past few weeks, the Israeli enemy has attacked military positions."
A spokesperson for the Israeli army said it did not comment on foreign reports.
A similar incident was reported about a week ago by Syrian news outlets, saying that the Syrian air defenses intercepted and destroyed an unidentified target, west of Damascus.
Sources later confirmed that the target was not Israeli.
7 aug 2018
New York Times quotes Middle East intelligence source as saying the Israeli spy agency planted the bomb in Dr. Aziz Asber's car, killing him and his driver; Asber, according to the report, was working on turning Syrian missiles into precision-guided missiles.
The Israeli Mossad was reportedly behind the assassination of Syrian missile scientist Dr. Aziz Asber, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing a senior Middle East intelligence source.
Asber was killed in an explosion in his car along with his driver several minutes after leaving his home in Hama on Saturday night.
After watching him for months, the Mossad reportedly planted a bomb in his car, according to the report by David M. Halbfinger and Ronen Bergman.
The source quoted by the Times, a member of an intelligence agency in the Middle East that was updated on the operation, said this was the fourth time over the past three years that Israel had eliminated a weapons scientist at a foreign nation.
By Israeli law, only the prime minister can authorize an assassination operation by the Mossad. Spokespeople for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman declined to respond to the Times report.
Some six months ago, Lieberman noted that "there are hundreds of explosions and assassinations in the Middle East every day, and every time they try to pin it on Israel."
Dr. Asber was involved in Syria's chemical weapons development as well as in the Iranian Fateh missiles program. He worked on the development of medium- and long-range missiles as well as building a solid-fuel plant for missiles and rockets.
He headed Sector 4, a top-secret unit at the Scientific Studies and Research Center in Masyaf developing rockets and ballistic missiles, where he was working on retrofitting the Syrian SM600 Tishreen to turn them into precision-guided missiles with the help of Iran's Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani.
Israel has been working to foil Iranian military entrenchment in Syria, fearing that when the civil war raging in the country is over, the pro-Iranian Shiite militias helping the regime of President Bashar Assad, including Hezbollah, would turn their sights on Israel.
According to the Times, Asber was also working in recent years on the construction of a new underground weapons factory to replace the
one destroyed in an Israeli strike last year.
He was considered a close associate of Syrian President Bashar Assad and worked directly under him, with no mediation. He also had close ties with Iranian and North Korean scientists as well as with Hezbollah. He was also involved in coordinating Iranian and Hezbollah operations in Syria, according to the Times.
An official from the pro-Syrian alliance told the Times he believed Israel targeted Asber because of the central role he had in Syria's missile program, even before the eruption of the 7-years-old civil war.
In recent years, the Israeli Air Force has attacked many targets in Syria—belonging to both the Syrian regime and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards—which were defined as strategic threats.
Recently, Israel learned the Scientific Studies and Research Center has become home to arms factories producing weapons for Syria, Hezbollah and IRGC forces in Syria.
Last September, Israel attacked the main factory run by Dr. Asber in Masyaf. Iranians began re-building the same plant this summer, this time underground, and industrial machines brought in for the plant were moved to storage elsewhere. Many of them were destroyed in a missile attack on July 22.
The Scientific Studies and Research Center in Syria has been under Western surveillance for a long time, and both the United States and France have imposed economic sanctions on it.
Prior to the Syrian civil war, the center both produced and stored chemical weapons in various sites that have either been destroyed or abandoned. Some 10,000 workers were employed, developing and manufacturing biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.
In a previous bombing of one of the center’s storage facility in Al-Safir, 15 Syrians and Iranians were killed, an action that Damascus blamed on Israel. Even though Israel has never assumed responsibility for both this bombing or the current assassination on Syrian soil, the Mossad has a long history of assassinating weapon scientists who have been perceived as a threat.
In the late 1970s, Mossad agents stabbed an Egyptian scientist to death, and poisoned two Iraqi developers working on the Saddam Hussein nuclear program.
In 1990, the Mossad assassinated a Canadian rocket scientist who was working on a type of super-cannon, which could launch shells from Iraq to Tel Aviv.
In the past 11 years, six Iranians, most of whom were involved in the Iran nuclear program, were assassinated.
General Hassan Muqaddam, commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard research and development unit, who was in charge of the missile program, was assassinated seven years ago along with 16 of his men in an office building they were working from.
It has previously been reported that Israel was also behind the assassination of other Syrian civilians: One of whom was associated with the Assad regime nuclear program, and was assassinated in 2008.
In addition, a senior Hamas official who was responsible for acquiring sophisticated weapons from Iran was assassinated in Dubai in 2010. Hezbollah's head of research and development was assassinated in Beirut in 2013 and two Hamas scientists were assassinated in 2016 in Kuala Lumpur and Tunis.
The Israeli Mossad was reportedly behind the assassination of Syrian missile scientist Dr. Aziz Asber, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing a senior Middle East intelligence source.
Asber was killed in an explosion in his car along with his driver several minutes after leaving his home in Hama on Saturday night.
After watching him for months, the Mossad reportedly planted a bomb in his car, according to the report by David M. Halbfinger and Ronen Bergman.
The source quoted by the Times, a member of an intelligence agency in the Middle East that was updated on the operation, said this was the fourth time over the past three years that Israel had eliminated a weapons scientist at a foreign nation.
By Israeli law, only the prime minister can authorize an assassination operation by the Mossad. Spokespeople for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman declined to respond to the Times report.
Some six months ago, Lieberman noted that "there are hundreds of explosions and assassinations in the Middle East every day, and every time they try to pin it on Israel."
Dr. Asber was involved in Syria's chemical weapons development as well as in the Iranian Fateh missiles program. He worked on the development of medium- and long-range missiles as well as building a solid-fuel plant for missiles and rockets.
He headed Sector 4, a top-secret unit at the Scientific Studies and Research Center in Masyaf developing rockets and ballistic missiles, where he was working on retrofitting the Syrian SM600 Tishreen to turn them into precision-guided missiles with the help of Iran's Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani.
Israel has been working to foil Iranian military entrenchment in Syria, fearing that when the civil war raging in the country is over, the pro-Iranian Shiite militias helping the regime of President Bashar Assad, including Hezbollah, would turn their sights on Israel.
According to the Times, Asber was also working in recent years on the construction of a new underground weapons factory to replace the
one destroyed in an Israeli strike last year.
He was considered a close associate of Syrian President Bashar Assad and worked directly under him, with no mediation. He also had close ties with Iranian and North Korean scientists as well as with Hezbollah. He was also involved in coordinating Iranian and Hezbollah operations in Syria, according to the Times.
An official from the pro-Syrian alliance told the Times he believed Israel targeted Asber because of the central role he had in Syria's missile program, even before the eruption of the 7-years-old civil war.
In recent years, the Israeli Air Force has attacked many targets in Syria—belonging to both the Syrian regime and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards—which were defined as strategic threats.
Recently, Israel learned the Scientific Studies and Research Center has become home to arms factories producing weapons for Syria, Hezbollah and IRGC forces in Syria.
Last September, Israel attacked the main factory run by Dr. Asber in Masyaf. Iranians began re-building the same plant this summer, this time underground, and industrial machines brought in for the plant were moved to storage elsewhere. Many of them were destroyed in a missile attack on July 22.
The Scientific Studies and Research Center in Syria has been under Western surveillance for a long time, and both the United States and France have imposed economic sanctions on it.
Prior to the Syrian civil war, the center both produced and stored chemical weapons in various sites that have either been destroyed or abandoned. Some 10,000 workers were employed, developing and manufacturing biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.
In a previous bombing of one of the center’s storage facility in Al-Safir, 15 Syrians and Iranians were killed, an action that Damascus blamed on Israel. Even though Israel has never assumed responsibility for both this bombing or the current assassination on Syrian soil, the Mossad has a long history of assassinating weapon scientists who have been perceived as a threat.
In the late 1970s, Mossad agents stabbed an Egyptian scientist to death, and poisoned two Iraqi developers working on the Saddam Hussein nuclear program.
In 1990, the Mossad assassinated a Canadian rocket scientist who was working on a type of super-cannon, which could launch shells from Iraq to Tel Aviv.
In the past 11 years, six Iranians, most of whom were involved in the Iran nuclear program, were assassinated.
General Hassan Muqaddam, commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard research and development unit, who was in charge of the missile program, was assassinated seven years ago along with 16 of his men in an office building they were working from.
It has previously been reported that Israel was also behind the assassination of other Syrian civilians: One of whom was associated with the Assad regime nuclear program, and was assassinated in 2008.
In addition, a senior Hamas official who was responsible for acquiring sophisticated weapons from Iran was assassinated in Dubai in 2010. Hezbollah's head of research and development was assassinated in Beirut in 2013 and two Hamas scientists were assassinated in 2016 in Kuala Lumpur and Tunis.