Iran’s presence is Syria | Broad discontent prevails among regime officers over predominance and frequent Israeli attacks
Reliable sources in the regime forces’ leadership have informed SOHR that a state of broad discontent is prevailing among many officers in military units near the Syria-Lebanon border and the border with the occupied Syrian Golan over the ongoing use of those units, which supposed to be under full control by regime forces, by Iranian-backed militias.
According to the sources, Iranian-backed commanders are holed up in those units, as well as storing weapons in their warehouses, despite frequent orders by the command of those units not to allow Iranians to use them, especially with the escalating reports about expected response by Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah to the assassination of senior commanders, such as Ismail Haniyeh and Fuad Shukr.
The state of discontent grew even further following the repeated Israeli attacks on regime military positions, the latest of which was executed yesterday when Israeli forces attacked the following four positions:
- A weapons warehouse in north-western Hama.
- The headquarters of the command of the 47th
- A battery of air-defences on Ma’arin mountain which hosts members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and Syrian and non-Syrian militiamen.
- Stalls selling fuel in the western countryside of Homs.
Those attacks left three Iranian-backed militias dead and nearly ten others injured.
This round of Israeli strikes was not the first of its kind, where Israeli attacks have noticeably escalated since early 2024.
On August 8, Israeli strikes targeted missile depots in a military regiment in Homs countryside, which resulted in the death of an advisor of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
While on July 30, Israeli forces attacked regime positions in Daraa countryside.
Also, earlier round of Israeli strikes, which targeted positions nearby Damascus in July, left seven regime soldiers and Iranian-backed militiamen dead and wounded.
According to SOHR statistics, Israeli attacks in Syrian territory in 2024 left 42 members of regime forces and 47 Iranian-backed militiamen dead.
Israeli strikes are met with poor air-defence capability, where regime air-defences, some units of which have been used for over 30 years, have failed to intercept Israeli attacks, except for shooting down a few number of missiles on some occasions.
Iranian-backed militias exploit the dreadful living conditions of the most of Syrians who suffer from extreme poverty to recruit the largest possible number; this, in turn, jeopardised their lives in light of the frequent Israeli attacks.
SOHR activists have confirmed that senior regime officers and officials responsible for military checkpoints, that are known for blackmailing civilians, enjoy decent standards of living, unlike the rest of regime officers and soldiers who struggle with dire living conditions, because of their low salaries. Accordingly, many of those officers and soldiers prefer to join Iranian-backed militias.
We, at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, condemn Israeli attacks on public and private institutions in Syria and strongly denounce the killing of innocent Syrian civilians under the pretext of “countering the Iranian presence.”
We also renew our calls for expelling Iranian-backed militias from Syria and putting an end to the ongoing exploitation of Syrian people by all conflicting powers.