Israel strikes Syria after Trump’s Iran move

Syrian state media accused Israel of launching missiles at a target near Damascus Tuesday, shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he was quitting the Iranian nuclear deal, a move that prompted Israel to go on high alert. Within two hours of the White House announcement, Syrian state news agency SANA reported explosions in Kisweh, south of Damascus. Syrian air defenses fired at two Israeli missiles, destroying both, SANA said.

A commander in the regional alliance supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad told Reuters that Israel’s air force had struck an army base at Kisweh without causing casualties. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strike hit an Iranian arms depot.

When asked about those statements, an Israeli military spokeswoman said: “We do not respond to such foreign reports.”

The Israeli military said earlier that, upon identifying “irregular activity” by Iranian forces in Syria, it instructed civic authorities in the occupied Golan Heights to ready bomb shelters, deployed new defenses and mobilized some reservist forces.

Israel’s top general, Gadi Eizenkot, canceled a scheduled appearance at an annual security conference and was conferring with Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and other national security chiefs, officials said.

Trump’s hard tack against the nuclear deal, while welcomed by Israel, has stirred fears of a possible regional flare-up.

Iran and Hezbollah have been helping Assad beat back a 7-year-old rebellion. Israel has carried out repeated airstrikes against them, hoping to stop the formation of a Lebanese-Syrian front to its north.

An April 9 strike killed seven Iranian military personnel at a Syrian airbase. Iran blamed Israel and vowed to retaliate. Israeli media said Tuesday’s order to prepare bomb shelters in the Golan was unprecedented during Syria’s civil war. Israel has posted Iron Dome short-range air defenses in the Golan, local media said, suggesting that the anticipated attack could be by ground-to-ground rockets or mortar bombs.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a televised address lauding Trump’s Iran policy and alluding to the tensions over Syria.

“For months now, Iran has been transferring lethal weaponry to its forces in Syria, with the purpose of striking at Israel,” Netanyahu said.

“We will respond mightily to any attack on our territory.”

On Twitter, Lieberman said he had spoken to his U.S. counterpart James Mattis and “updated him on regional developments.”

Separately, the first convoy of buses carrying opposition fighters and civilians from a rebel enclave in Homs province and small parts of Hama province reached an area controlled by Turkish troops Tuesday, the observatory said.

The Syrian government will take control of the area after rebels leave.

Fighters who elect to stay can benefit from an amnesty, but most are expected to be drafted into the army months later.

The observatory said tens of thousands of fighters and civilians will leave the central region, bound for northern parts of Syria controlled by opposition fighters and Turkish troops.

It said the convoy that left central Syria late Monday was waiting for permission to enter the Al-Bab area, which is controlled by Turkish troops and Turkey-backed opposition fighters.