Israel Attacks Syria Twice in One Day, as Turkey Intensifies War on Syria in Idlib

On Thursday morning, February 27, an Israeli drone strike on the southern Syrian town of Hadar in al-Quneitra province killed a Syrian civilian, Imad Tawil. The drone strike targeted Tawil as he was in his vehicle at the southern entrance of the town, according to local sources.

Israeli media claimedTawil was a Hezbollah affiliate, involved in plans to attack the occupied Golan Heights.

Israeli media sources reported that Tawil was linked to “Hezbollah’s infrastructure” in the Syrian governorate of al-Quneitra. The sources claimed that the individual was also involved in planning attacks on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

There is, however, no evidence that the man had any links to Hezbollah, and if anything he may have been an off-duty Syrian Army officer.

Later that evening, Zionist forces carried out attacks on al-Quneitra province once again, this time with Israeli helicopters in the occupied Golan Heights launching missiles at several Syrian Arab Army (SAA) sites in the region, injuring at least three soldiers.

“Israeli occupation helicopters fired rockets at Syrian Army points in Al-Qahtaniyah, Al-Hurriyah, and the liberated city of Al-Quneitra, causing three injuries to the soldiers,” SANA reported.

Israel did not publicly claim the attacks, as is its standard procedure in regards to its perpetual military intervention against Syria throughout the eight-year war, though top Israeli officials have nonetheless admitted to carrying out attacks against over 1,000 Syrian targets, mostly since 2017. The latest admission to Israel’s covert war on Syria came in December 2019, from IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gadi Eisenkot just before retiring.

“In January 2017 we began attacking the infrastructure the Iranians were building in Syria,” Eisenkot told The Sunday Times in an interview in his 15th-floor office in Tel Aviv. “The critical mass was from mid-2017,” he added. “We began attacking systematically a number of times each week. Without making any statements. Beneath the radar.”

And although Israeli officials continually claim its attacks on Syria are aimed at targeting only Iran, the reality is that the majority of these strikes target SAA military sites, often killing both Syrian soldiers and civilians.

This latest series of unprovoked attacks follow a larger Israeli air raid in Damascus earlier this week, in what turned out to be the second failed assassination attempt of a top Palestinian Islamic Jihad official in Damascus in less than a year, which nonetheless killed two Palestinians and possibly four other fighters, including one Syrian.

This recent Israeli aggression comes on the heels of a threat made by newly appointed Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett on February 19 that the Zionist entity would turn its so-called preemptive war on Iranian presence in Syria into an all-out offensive attack.

Speaking to Ynet News on Wednesday the new Israeli Defense Minister, Naftali Bennett said, “We will go from preventive action to offensive action — the only measure that guarantees us the expulsion of Iran out of Syria.”

“We are warning them (the Iranians), we will turn Syria into an Iranian Vietnam, and you will continue to bleed until the last Iranian soldier leaves Syrian territory,” the nation's defense chief threatened.

Iran and Syria both maintain that the only Iranian presence in the country is IRGC advisors embedded within the ranks of the SAA, and that no Iranian soldiers are present in the country. This Iranian presence in Syria is 100% legal, and forms no legal justification for the habitual violation of Syrian sovereignty in countless unprovoked aggressions against Syrian targets, as the Iranians have been invited by the legitimate Damascus government to aid in its war against the NATO- and Israeli-sponsored terrorist invasion of Syria.

Meanwhile in the last al-Qaeda stronghold in Syria’s Idlib, tensions continue to escalate as Turkey continues to increase its involvement in the terrorist war on Syria in the province, in an attempt to stop the ongoing Syrian offensive to liberate the entire area from the control of the radical foreign-backed Jihadist proxy armies. This increased involvement continues to cost dozens of Turkish servicemen their lives, all in a futile effort to protect the NATO-backed al-Qaeda terrorist proxy armies from their imminent defeat.

As the March 1st deadline given to Syrian forces by Turkey to withdraw from all of the recently liberated territory or face an open war with Turkey draws near, Turkish forces in Idlib have in reality already shifted from directly supporting the terrorists to actively engaging in the terrorist war being waged on the SAA in Idlib.

On Thursday, Turkey eventually confirmed that 33 Turkish soldiers had indeed been killed in Syrian Army attacks in southern Idlib, another blow to President Erdogan’s insane dreams to revive the Ottoman Empire by not only using Turkish soldiers as human shields to shield al-Qaeda, but to send them to the front line to confront the advancing Syrian Army alongside the terrorists.

The Turkish soldiers were killed when the SAA targeted a Turkish column of armored vehicles near the frontline in southern Idlib. The Russian MoD later confirmed that the Turkish soldiers were embedded with the terrorists, that no Turkish observation posts had been targeted and no Turkish soldiers located at observation points had been harmed. According to the Turkish-Russian agreements Erdogan keeps whining about Syria violating, Turkish forces are not allowed to operate outside the designated observation posts, and the terrorists are to be disarmed of the very heavy equipment Turkey continues to provide to them.

These latest Turkish casualties bring the Turkish death count to over 50, as Erdogan continues to sacrifice his countrymen to protect al-Qaeda terrorists in Idlib. Thousands of Turkish soldiers are currently deployed in Idlib, now actively engaging both the SAA and Russian forces in northern Syria, both from the observation posts and embedded among the terrorist armies on the frontlines of battle.

Apart from artillery support, Turkish forces continue to launch attack drones against the SAA, and have repeatedly attempted to use US-made MANPADS to shoot down Russian and Syrian jets flying over Idlib. On Thursday, Syrian air defenses shot down a Turkish drone attempting to attack government positions in the Maarzaf area of Idlib province.

“Speaking in a daily briefing (Thursday evening), the head of the Russian center for Syrian reconciliation, Rear Admiral Oleg Zhuravlev, noted that Ankara continues to violate the agreements reached with Moscow on the Idlib de-escalation zone,” Sputnik reported.

"In violation of the Sochi accords, the Turkish side continues to support the actions of illegal armed groups in the Idlib de-escalation zone by artillery fire and the use of reconnaissance and strike drones in attacks on the units of the Syrian armed forces," Zhuravlev highlighted.

On Wednesday the Jihadist fighters repeatedly used Turkish-supplied MANPADS in attempts to shoot down Syrian fighter jets carrying out air raids on the terrorists, but all missiles failed to reach their targets. The Russian side has warned that these attacks have become frequent over the past week, targeting both Syrian and Russian jets, and that both Syrian and Russian warplanes have had to engage in maneuvers and/or launch flares to avoid being hit. These US-made shoulder-fired missile launchers are not only being provided to the terrorists by Turkey, but are also being used directly by Turkish forces as well.

Last week, two such missiles were launched in an attempt to down a Russian RU-24 over Idlib. The attack was reportedly confirmed to have not only been carried out with a US-made Stinger, but from a Turkish observation post no less! If the footage wasn’t of this particular attack, it nonetheless proves that Turkish soldiers operating from their observation posts are firing US MANPADS at the Russian and Syrian air forces operating in the airspace over Idlib as they target terrorist positions.

On Thursday, Idlib militants backed by Turkish artillery fire launched a massive counteroffensive aimed at cutting off the M5 highway which was just recently reopened, and managed to enter the city of Saraqib after SAA defenses broke down on Thursday. Syrian soldiers retreated from their positions to avoid greater casualties, before regrouping and mounting a counteroffensive to re-take the city later on Thursday.

Meanwhile, as the terrorists celebrated their temporary ‘victory’ in Saraqib, the SAA advance in southern Idlib continued to move quickly, liberating 20 villages from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly al-Nusra, Syrian branch of al-Qaeda) on Thursday, as the Syrian frontline in southern Idlib continues to quickly advance towards the M4 highway.

On Friday, Erdogan called an emergency NATO meeting for help with the Idlib situation, but was denied any military aid in the province, instead only being given diplomatic support for his valiant efforts aimed at defending the “largest al-Qaeda safe haven since 9/11” from liberation by the Russian-backed Syrian offensive.

The Allies offered “their deepest condolences” to Turkey and expressed solidarity, but stopped short from taking any more practical measures after the Friday emergency meeting.

Meanwhile, the Syrian advance in southern Idlib continued, and the SAA successfully cleared the entire al-Ghab plain, securing the border between Idlib and Hama provinces.

The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) also directly engaged the SAA with heavy rocket attacks.

On Friday afternoon, the Russian Air Force carried out a series of airstrikes on terrorist positions in Saraqib, signaling that that a renewed SAA push to re-capture the city is imminent. Meanwhile, heavy clashes between the Turkish-backed terrorists and the SAA in the area continues, with local reports that Turkish soldiers have joined the ranks of the terrorists in their attacks on the SAA in the area of Saraqib.

It remains almost certain, that without the direct support of the TAF, the terrorists would not have been able to retake any portion of the city of Saraqib. Regardless, its certain recapture by Syrian forces is imminent, and the trade off for this temporary victory by the Turkish-backed Jihadists was the complete loss of southern Idlib to Syria.

Turkey has threatened to wage war against Syria if Syrian forces do not withdraw their forces from all liberated areas of Idlib by the end of the month. But in reality, Turkey is already waging a war against Syria, with Turkish forces actively engaged in battles and attacks against the Syrian Army and Russian forces in Idlib.

This direct engagement by Turkish forces in Idlib risks escalating into a full blown world war. Erdogan has asked the US Air Force to patrol the Idlib airspace, and is pushing for the implementation of a no-fly zone that could surely only be ‘enforced’ with a combination of Turkish and US firepower. As it is, Turkish and Russian forces have already engaged each other in the conflict, and the war for Syria is already a ‘world war’ - with the US, Turkey, Israel and their proxy-terrorists on one side; while Syria, Iran, Hezbollah and Russia are on the other.

Syria has become the frontline in the war between the western empire and the axis of resistance confronting it, with Russia backing at least Syria’s fight against the proxy-terrorists. If Turkey insists on continuing to intensify its war against Syria in Idlib in defense of radical ISIS and al-Qaeda Jihadist terrorists, it is likely only a matter of time before a full blown world war erupts, with Turkey on one side and Russia on the other. US intervention in Syria has repeatedly brought us to the brink of a world war, and now US-backed Turkish intervention in Syria is doing the exact same thing. All to protect radical terrorists which are on both of their own terrorist watchlists...