Iranian-backed forces massing around Deir Ezzor city.
Factions affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have removed weapons and ammunition from several positions in Syria’s central region, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on February 3.
The London-based monitoring group claimed the weapons and ammunition were moved out from several positions near the town of al-Sukhnah in the eastern Homs countryside as well as from military depots in the village of Mheen in the governorate’s southern countryside.
“The recent Iranian movements are meant to avoid Israeli strikes,” the group quoted special sources as saying.
In another report released on February 5, the SOHR said that Iranian-backed factions, including the Afghan Liwa Fatemiyoun, had evacuated two positions in the town of al-Mayadin in the southern Deir Ezzor countryside, also out of fear of Israeli strikes.
Between January 29 and 30, three waves of strikes hit the Syrian side of the al-Qa’im border crossing with Iraq. The strikes, which were unofficially blamed on Israel, targeted a convoy moving goods and humanitarian aid into Syria near the town of al-Bukamal in the southern Deir Ezzor countryside, where Iranian-backed factions maintain a large presence. Back then, Hebrew and Arab news sources reported that the convoy was moving Iranian weapons, with the final destination being Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iranian-backed factions are mainly present in Syria’s central region to combat ISIS remnants and guard the border line with Iraq.
Israel’s repeated strikes on these factions are supposedly meant to prevent Iran from establishing a lasting military presence in Syria.
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