(Zaman Al Wasl)- A well-informed source denied Western intelligence reports that Iran has built another permanent military base outside Damascus as Fox News said on Tuesday.
The satellite images showed a training camp of the regime's Special Forces in the village of al-Dreij eight miles northwest of the capital, according to the source.
But Fox News, in its exclusive satellite images, claimed the images show what is believed to be the new Iranian base, operated by the Quds Force — the special operations arm of Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The photos show two new white hangars, each roughly 30 yards by 20 yards, used to store short- and medium-range missiles.
Zaman al-Wasl's source said the hangers are being used only for army vehicles.
On Capitol Hill Tuesday, the top U.S. military commander for American forces in the Middle East said Iran was “increasing” the number and “quality” of its ballistic missiles it was deploying to the region — when asked during a House Armed Services Committee hearing by Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., about reports Iran had moved more missiles into Syria.
Gen. Joseph L. Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, said Iran has “enhanced” its funding to proxy forces in the Middle East since the landmark nuclear agreement in July 2015, including sending missiles, fighters and other arms to Yemen and Syria.
But when asked by Cheney what the U.S. military’s role against Iran in Syria should be, Votel replied, “Countering Iran is not one of the coalition’s missions in Syria.” The focus of the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops on the ground in Syria remains the destruction of ISIS and prevention of the terror group from rising up again, Votel said.
Votel said in the past five years Iran successfully had created a proxy network in Yemen similar to what it took them 20 years to create in Lebanon with Hezbollah.
A base similar to the one revealed in these new satellite photos was built last year south of Damascus, before being destroyed in December by Israeli surface-to-surface missiles.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tehran a month prior to the strike against building any military bases in Syria. “Israel will not let that happen,” he said. (With Fox News)
Zaman Al Wasl
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