The Israeli military Saturday claims it foiled an imminent large-scale attack by Iranian forces and Shiite militia on targets in northern Israel, with a series of airstrikes carried out near the Syrian capital Damascus.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed responsibility for the airstrikes, saying it was a very need to cast multiple attacks by the killer drones of a kind never ever used by Iranian forces against Israel.
Unlike other standard attack drones, which fire missiles on their targets, the killer drone itself acts as a missile by flying into the target itself.
When asked by CNN how responsive the IDF to the threat to be, IDF foreign press spokesman Jonathan Conricus declared it an “imminent, as in real-time.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while praising Israel’s move for the attacks, said on Twitter, “I repeat: Iran has no immunity anywhere. Our forces operate in every direction against Iranian aggression.”
“He who rises to kill you, kill him first,” Netanyahu said in his tweet, quoting Hebrew scripture.
The IDF issued its statement shortly after the local Syrian news agency SANA reported that Syria’s military intercepted “hostile targets” in the skies above Damascus. The sounds of explosions were heard all around the Syrian capital, SANA said.
Residents in Damascus, who asked for the confidentiality of identification due to the possible security threats, told CNN the sounds of the blasts seemed to come from near the Damascus airport.
Syrian local news channel al Ikhbaria broadcast breaking news with the headline: “The aggression is ongoing and anti-air defenses are countering and neutralizing hostile targets in the southern area.”
Saturday’s events came into existence after Netanyahu’s hint that Israel was responsible for a series of unexplained attacks on militia targets in Iraq in recent weeks.
During an interview on Israeli channel on Thursday, Netanyahu, who also serves as the country’s defense minister, was asked whether Israeli forces “were acting in the whole region, including Iraq, against the Iranian threat.”
“We act in many arenas against a country which seeks to destroy us. Of course, I have given the security forces a free hand and the instruction to do what is needed to thwart these plans of Iran,” Netanyahu replied.
The recent claim by Netanyahu appears to be backed up by the United States.