Iran is struggling to establish an air defense system in Syria, with the aim of preventing Israeli attacks on its allies and the terrorist organizations it supports in the country, as was published this morning (Wednesday) in a major investigation by the American weekly "Newsweek".
A senior security source in "a US-allied country" told the weekly that "Iran is developing these capabilities as a joint project with the Syrian army, apparently with the aim of allowing itself to use the air defense system independently from parts of Syria." The source also added: The Iranians are helping the Syrians to improve their radar system, with the aim of detecting and preventing Israeli attacks, mainly on Iranian targets in Syria."
Reports in Syria: Israel attacked in the Homs area
According to the source, Iran transferred batteries of anti-aircraft missiles of the "Side-4" model that were unveiled in November in a ceremony attended by senior officials of the Revolutionary Guards and the Iranian government.
The missile was praised by the heads of the Iranian defense industry and it was said that it outperforms the American Patriot system and the Russian S-300.
The source also stated that the presence of the missile batteries in Syria puts at significant risk the soldiers of the Syrian regime army in whose bases the Iranian missiles are stationed and who, according to the source, Israel usually attacks.
The source claims that Israel has carried out at least seven airstrikes against sites where the Iranian air defense system has been deployed in the past two years, including an attack on targets in the city of Tadmur, at the Syrian Navy base in Tartus and two attacks on the city of Homs that took place in 2021.
Newsweek's source also revealed that two Iranian air defense engineers, who belonged to the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, were killed in an airstrike in Syria that was carried out on their residence in a suburb of the capital, Damascus.
The dead, Morteza Saidanjad and Ahsan Karbali, were mentioned in a statement by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as "martyrs" and the organization vowed to take revenge on Israel for their elimination.
Launching an anti-aircraft missile made in Iran,
In addition, a colonel of the Revolutionary Guards Air Force, David Jaafari, who was known by the nickname "Malek", was recently killed for an unknown reason in Syria.
The source of "Newsweek" claimed that the man was the head of the Iranian air defense system in Syria and that he was eliminated by Israel.
The source claimed that before his death, Jaafari was active in the town of Malula, south of Damascus, where the command of the Iranian air defense system in Syria is still concentrated.
The investigation states that despite more than two years of effort that cost Iran tens of millions of dollars, while the country is in a deep economic crisis, Tehran has not yet been able to establish an effective or capable air defense system in the country, this is mainly due to the Israeli attacks and the advanced capabilities of the Israeli Air Force.
However, Iran has not yet abandoned the attempt to use air defense capabilities in order to prevent Israel from being able to attack from its own territory, and while Russia, which in the past provided anti-aircraft weapons to the Assad regime and even helped him operate the advanced systems, is busy in Ukraine, it seems that Iranian involvement in the field will only deepen.
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