Israel has warned that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard may be planning an air attack in retaliation for a suspected Israeli strike which killed seven Iranians at an airbase in Syria earlier this month.
Tensions between the two Middle East powers are running high as Israel struggles to stop Iran from gaining a permanent military foothold in Syria and using Syrian territory to pass sophisticated weaponry to the Lebanese militant group Hizbollah.
Days before Western airstrikes against the Syrian regime last week, Israel is believed to have carried out its own attack on the regime’s T4 airbase in central Syria on April 9.
Both Russia and the Syrian regime accused Israel of being behind the strike but the Israeli military has refused to confirm or deny its involvement, as is its practice with nearly all operations in Syria.
Iranian forces operate out of the T4 base and seven Iranian military advisors were killed in the attack. It is believed to be the largest ever loss of life by Iran’s military in an Israeli attack in Syria.
Senior Iranian officials have promised revenge for the T4 strike. Ali Akbar Velayati, a top advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, said the attack “will not remain without a response”.
Israel is on high alert for potential Iranian retaliation and on Tuesday officials said they believed it was most likely that the Revolutionary Guard’s air wing would try to launch an attack from Syria.
“Israel’s defence establishment understands that the Revolutionary Guard is most likely to be the designated unit that will try to wage an attack against Israel,” an official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
In an apparent warning to the Iranians, Israel released reconnaissance photographs showing what it said were two Iranian drone bases inside Syria. Another photograph showed what Israeli officials said was a wing of the Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran, allegedly dedicated to a fleet of Revolutionary Guard aircraft.
