Israeli security cabinet set to convene to discuss potential
escalation of violence in north; Nasrallah to deliver address Sunday
The Iranian general who was killed in an apparent Israeli
airstrike near the border with the Golan Heights on Sunday was a ballistic
missile expert who was visiting Syria as part of a project to set up a missile
base near the border with Israel, according to a Tuesday report.
General Mohammed Ali Allahdadi, whom Tehran acknowledged was
killed in an Israeli missile strike near the Syrian city of Quneitra along with
several Hezbollah fighters, was tasked with building four new Hezbollah missile
bases near the Israel-Syria frontier, the London-based Times reported.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps claimed that
Allahdadi was ostensibly dispatched to Syria “provide military advice to Syrian
government and nation in their war with Takfirist and Salafist (radical Sunni)
terrorists, and provided valuable analysis and advice in neutralizing the plots
of this Zionist-backed conspiracy in the Syrian soil.”
The report emerged as Israel’s security cabinet was set to
convene Tuesday to discuss a potential escalation of violence on the northern
border with Lebanon following Sunday’s strike.
Iranian general Mohammad Ali Allahdadi (Photo credit:
Facebook)
Defense officials said the country is on high alert for
possible attacks from the Lebanon-based Hezbollah following.
Officials said the country had boosted deployment of its
Iron Dome missile defense system along its border with Lebanon, and has
increased surveillance activities in the area.
Security details in northern communities were reportedly put
on high alert.
An Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps website on Monday said
that Allahdadi and “a number of fighters and Islamic Resistance (Hezbollah)
forces were attacked by the Zionist regime’s helicopters.”
Among the Hezbollah members killed was Jihad Mughniyeh, son
of late Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh and head of the Shiite group’s
operations in the Syrian Golan Heights, and Mohammed Issa, another senior
Hezbollah officer.
Israel has refused to say whether it carried out the attack.
Initial Hebrew-language reports after the strike indicated the convoy hit may
have been preparing an attack on Israel when it was struck.
A Hezbollah source said Monday that a reprisal attack would
be severe, but not all-out war.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah is expected to deliver a
speech Sunday, Lebanese news outlet Naharnet reported Tuesday. The speech had
been scheduled for next month to mark the death of Imad Mughniyeh in 2008 in an
alleged Israeli operation.
Syrian President Bashar Assad spoke with Nasrallah by
telephone and offered his condolences for the deaths of the Hezbollah fighters,
according to a report in the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Rai. There was no indication
from the report as to whether the two discussed possible retribution against
Israel for the alleged attack on Syrian soil.
Iraqi Vice President Nuri al-Maliki also sent a letter of
condolence to Nasrallah, saying “the Zionist criminals and vampires must know
that the pure blood of the martyrs, like Jihad Imad Mughniyeh, will augment the
resistance in face of oppression, corruption and tyranny,” according to
Hezbollah-affiliated news outlet al-Manar.
Former Shin Bet chief and Yesh Atid MK Yaakov Peri told Army
Radio on Tuesday morning that Hezbollah likely suffered a serious blow with the
death of its commanders in the airstrike on Sunday.
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