[JPost] Kohavi says IDF had "perfect intelligence" to hit "Truck Number 8" out of a 25 truck caravan.Israel struck a convoy of trucks carrying Iranian weapons along the Syrian-Iraqi border last month, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi confirmed on Wednesday.
Without specifying the exact timing, it appeared clear that he was referring to an attack within Syria, next to the Iraqi border, which the Wall Street Journal and various other media outlets attributed to Israel in early November, but which Israel did not take responsibility for at the time.
According to reports at the time, the caravan was moving Iranian weapons, likely including powerful missiles, from Iraq to Syria, and around a dozen Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members and other Iranian-affiliated forces were killed.
| The Times of Israel adds: |
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, and "advanced capabilities" allowed the pilots to carry out a precision strike.
"We could have not been aware of the Syrian convoy a few weeks ago," Kohavi told a conference at the Reichman University in Herzliya.
"We could have not known that it was heading from Iraq to Syria, we could have not known what’s in it and we could have not known that out of the 25 trucks, truck number eight was the one carrying weapons," he said.
"We needed to send pilots to the right place and they had to evade surface-to-air missiles fired at them. They needed to attack, they needed to hit their targets and come back safely and not kill people who shouldn’t be killed. These are very advanced capabilities," said Kohavi.
The strike reportedly left 10 people dead, including an unknown number of Iranians.
At the time of the November incident, the Israeli army refused to comment, in line with its general policy to not confirm involvement in specific strikes in Syria. It wasn’t clear why Kohavi, who will end his term as military chief of staff next month, chose to acknowledge the IDF’s responsibility for the strike.
Israel has allegedly carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations. It has acknowledged, however, that it targets arms shipments and posts of Iran-allied groups, such as Lebanon’s terrorist Hezbollah.
At the time, Hezbollah said it had nothing to do with the convoy that was attacked.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor of unclear funding, said the strike hit tanker trucks carrying fuel and other trucks carrying weapons for the militias in Syria’s eastern province of Deir el-Zour.
Most alleged Israeli strikes have been focused on areas of Syria closer to Damascus or the country’s center, though it has been accused of carrying out attacks outside that area as well, including in Deir el-Zour.
| General Kohavi was feeling loquacious, according to An Nahar: |
Israeli army chief Aviv Kohavi on Wednesday announced that Israel has prevented Iran
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and Syria, while announcing that Israel was behind a Nov. 8 attack on an Iranian convoy that had entered Syria from Iraq.
"As a result of many years of activity, the Iranian vision -- which was supposed to include at this time hundreds of surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles in the Syrian and Lebanese arenas — has been completely disrupted," Kohavi said.
"It was supposed to include tens of thousands of snuffies -- at their peak there were indeed tens of thousands -- and a new Hezbollah organization in the south of the Golan Heights. These three things have been significantly disrupted... The level of deterrence against the Iranians has increased significantly," Kohavi added.