Click to see full-size image. Source: the Israeli Air Force.
The Israeli attack on the northern Syrian governorate of Aleppo in the beginning of May targeted positions belonging to a secret Iranian unit responsible for manufacturing missiles and other weapons, Al-Arabiya reported on June 5.
Citing informed sources, Al-Arabiya reported that Iranian Unit 18340 operates in Syria secretly and has weapons factories to produce precision-guided missiles.
In Unit 18340, Iranian and Syrian officers work together under the command of an Iranian officer named Jawad Soleimani. The secret unit also assists the “Syrian Corps” within the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force to produce, supply and test new weapons.
“Precision missiles are among what is being produced and tested [by the unit], as Iran is improving the accuracy of the missiles manufactured by the Syrians at those positions,” Al-Arabiya’s report reads.
The Israeli attack took place two days before the visit of Iranian President Raissi to Syria, which marked the first visit by an Iranian president to the country in 13 years.
At the time of the attack, Syrian media said that the strikes hit Aleppo International Airport as well as a complex of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center located near the town of al-Safira in the southern countryside of the governorate. The strikes claimed the lives of three Syrian service members, all of whom were reportedly air defense operators.
During more than a decade of war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of strikes against the country. Most of the strikes targeted bases of the Syrian Arab Army as well as positions of the revolutionary guard and its affiliates.
The Israeli attack on Aleppo was followed by another that targeted military positions in the outskirts of the capital, Damascus, on May 28. The targeted positions were allegedly held by Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
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