Iran is reducing its military presence in Syria after a series of attacks blamed on Israel. This was reported on Wednesday, April 24, by the AFP news agency, citing an informed source close to Hezbollah. Iran has been supporting Syrian government forces for more than a decade, but a series of assassinations of senior Iranian military officials has led to a shift in Iranian presence in Syria, the source said.
The source says Iran has withdrawn its military from southern Syria, including the provinces of Quneitra and Daraa adjacent to the Golan Heights, but Iranians remain in other parts of the country. It is noted that the withdrawal of the Iranian military began after the strike on Damascus on January 21, as a result of which five advisers to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed, including the commander of the Al-Quds Force. Iran holds Israel responsible for this operation.
Since then, there have been several more serious strikes against Iranian targets in Syria, including an attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1 that killed six Iranians, including the commander of the Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon, Muhammad Reza Zahedi, a former commander IRGC Air Force. In response to this attack, on April 14, Iran carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel.
London-based monitoring group The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports that Iranian troops have withdrawn from southern Syria and Damascus, and have been replaced by Iranian-sponsored Lebanese and Iraqi fighters. At the same time, the center reports that up to 3,000 Iranian troops remain in Syria, supported by tens of thousands of Iranian-trained militants from Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan.