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Explosions at Iranian missile depots in Syria measure 2.6 on Richter Scale

Explosions at Iranian missile depots in Syria measure 2.6 on Richter Scale

Israel presumably behind the attack

Overnight there were massive explosions at multiple military bases in Syria, including bases believed to be run by Iran.

One of the explosions, which was a combination of enormous secondary explosions, was so large it registered as a low-level earthquake on seismic instruments in neighboring countries.

https://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=662356

Here is video of the explosions at one base:

The working assumption is that Israel hit storage areas where Iran kept heavy long-range rockets for future use against Israel. The NY Times reports on conflicting reports as to the death toll and how many of the dead were Iranian:

Missile strikes in Syria hit military bases used by Iran and its proxy militias fighting in the civil war there, killing at least 16 people, a conflict monitoring group and one of Iran’s regional allies said on Monday.

The Syrian state news media confirmed that there were strikes in the central city of Hama and near the northern city of Aleppo late Sunday, but it did not provide a death toll. An official for the regional alliance that includes Iran, Syria and the militant group Hezbollah said that most of the dead were Iranian….

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in Britain but monitors Syria through contacts there, said that the attacks on Sunday had killed at least 26 people, many of them Iranians.

The strikes hit munitions warehouses at the 47th Brigade military base near Hama that Iran and its proxies used, destroying ground-to-ground missiles and causing large explosions, the observatory said. Another attack struck the Neirab military air base near Aleppo.

An official from a regional alliance that includes Iran, Syria and Hezbollah confirmed that the strikes near Hama had hit a storage facility on the base and said they had destroyed 200 missiles and killed 16 people, including 11 Iranians. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists.

Haaretz adds that Arab media report bunker buster bombs were used:

The targeted bases were manned by the Syrian army as well as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, and housed several missile warehouses, according to the Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar. The report adds that several dozen were wounded and evacuated to nearby hospitals. According to the report, Bunker Buster bombs were used, which makes it likely the launch was airborne.

Avi Issacharoff at The Times of Israel suggests that the seismic activity may reflect the use of bunker busters, rather than the secondary explosions, but that the real significance is the size of the attack and that is took place just after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Israel:

An increasing number of media organizations associated with the Syrian regime and Hezbollah are hinting that Israel was responsible. According to a report in the Al Akhbar newspaper, identified with Hezbollah, bunker buster missiles, which do not explode on impact but rather deep in the ground, hit bases in the Hama and Aleppo areas. Hence the “earthquake.” …

Whatever the case, it is clear that the strike was highly unusual in several respects.

First and foremost was the sheer power of the attack. The pictures and the sounds, and the large number of casualties, point to an incident of larger scale than those to which we have become accustomed. We are not talking here about just another strike on another Hezbollah convoy, but rather what would appear to be a new step in what is now the almost-open warfare being waged between Iran and Israel in recent weeks on Syrian territory. The same player that earlier this month attacked the T-4 airbase, from which an Iranian attack drone was launched into Israel in February, apparently struck again overnight Sunday-Monday, taking the gloves off and moving into a new level of military confrontation….

All this is beginning to look rather like a coordinated Israeli-American operation to limit Iran’s military activities in Syria — simultaneously conveying the message to Moscow that Russia’s green light for Iran to establish itself militarily in Syria is not acceptable in Jerusalem and Washington.

Assuming Israel was behind the explosions, it shows Israel’s willingness to confront Iran directly in Syria. Iran has vowed revenge for an earlier strike at an Iranian drone airbase in Syria, but if these current reports are correct, the Iranian death toll was much higher this time. By striking missile depots with the types of weapons Iran likely would fire from Syria, Israel may have been acting to preempt retaliation.

This is not the best time for Iran to try to attack Israel, with the Trump administration decision on the Iran nuclear deal just weeks away. Moreover, Iran would be fighting far from its territory, in an area where Israel has shown it controls the skies. The Russians seem to be stepping aside, for now, and not trying to interfere with Israeli attacks on Iranian positions in Iran. So large missiles fired from Syria were and remain Iran’s best way of attacking Israel. Now at least some of those missiles have done up in flames.

We will update this post as more becomes known.

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Comments

The new Iranian national anthem?

I feel the earth move under my feet
I feel the sky tumbling down
I feel my heart start to trembling
Whenever you’re around.

If the Mullahs of Iran, who threaten Israel with annihilation, are going to forward base arms and Shiite recruits from all over the middle east into southern Syria, do they really think Israel won’t do anything about it? Iran has succeeded in creating targets for the IAF. Brilliant military strategy:)

The use of bunker busters sends three important messages: Israel has them. Israel will use them with U.S. acquiescence. Israel could use them against Hezbollah in Beirut and in Tehran.

The first thought is against Iranian nuke facilities. But often overlooked is that Iran has even more critical assets underground in a crisis—its leadership.

Bunker busters remind the Persians and their puppets that the stakes are very very high

    Milhouse in reply to (((Boogs))). | April 30, 2018 at 11:32 am

    The first thought is against Iranian nuke facilities. But often overlooked is that Iran has even more critical assets underground in a crisis—its leadership.

    Hizballah too. Deep under Beirut.

    JusticeDelivered in reply to (((Boogs))). | April 30, 2018 at 12:06 pm

    Also overlooked, Iran has over forty hydroelectric dams. Start knocking them out.

    No power for centrifuges.

    No water for irrigation.

    No water for people.

    Flood destruction of people and real estate.

    Much of Iran returned to stone age:)

    And then, we could consider using Iran to test mitigation of climate warming with nukes or nuke triggered eruptions.

    rabidfox in reply to (((Boogs))). | April 30, 2018 at 3:17 pm

    Are we sure the massive explosion was the result of Israeli armaments and not what those armaments hit?

      Milhouse in reply to rabidfox. | May 1, 2018 at 10:26 am

      Um, nobody is suggesting that the explosion is the result of whatever hit these warehouses. There is no doubt that it’s the stored arms that exploded. But there’s no actual evidence that it was Israel that did this, and there’s not likely to be such evidence for a long time if ever.

Paul In Sweden | April 30, 2018 at 9:59 am

Iran has threatened US navy ships and has threatened to block all commercial shipping recently in the gulf. Which would bring conflict to the Iranian doorstep and to their shores. This seems like a bad move with today’s US administration and military leadership. That said, I don’t like the prospects. Iran is going to continue to take a beating on its exported assets, by Israel, USA and maybe even Saudi Arabia.

legalizehazing | April 30, 2018 at 10:14 am

I used to find it hilarious when Iran was under economic sanction that they’d spend on these missiles transport them to Syria etc and they’d get blown up in storage lol. Now that they have a free cash flow… it’s not that funny

    puhiawa in reply to legalizehazing. | April 30, 2018 at 2:02 pm

    In fact by all economic indicators Iran is in serious trouble. Inflation is at 20%, unemployment in key demographics may be 40%, there are shortages of everything, Mosque attendance is as low as when the Shah was on the throne, and there are demonstrations or riots somewhere in Iran every week. Oh. And no one knows where the money went.

      rabidfox in reply to puhiawa. | April 30, 2018 at 3:20 pm

      “Oh. And no one knows where the money went.”
      At a guess, I’d say various numbered accounts in Switzerland.

Israel has shown time and time again that they will not be driven into the sea without a fight. Good for them. One tiny little country fighting on it’s own. Their courage is awesome!

    JusticeDelivered in reply to kenoshamarge. | April 30, 2018 at 2:07 pm

    I think that the discussion should be about pushing all the Palestinians into the sea, or maybe deep into the center of a desert. Even if there was no intention of following through, it would be quite entertaining watching them squirm. It would also be poetic justice.

The Obama Munitions Fund is still pretty flush considering the cash he transferred. As for the fireworks, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of guys.

I think there’s also a message to the Palestinians inre their ‘resistance’ attack scheduled for mid May. Using the ‘big stick’ to speak loudly.

Thank you, Israel!

Note that it’s only speculation that this was Israel — and it’s likely to remain speculation for a long time.

On the same lines I just saw a clip of Yvett Liberman, the Israeli defense minister, asked about the Hamas guy bumped off in Malaysia, pretending never to have even heard of the place. “What’s Malaysia?”, he asked. i.e. you’re not getting anything out of me.

Don’t smoke in the dynamite room.
Shelly Berman

Destroying missiles on the ground is much more efficient than trying to knock them out of the air.It takes at least one missile to take out one missile in the air. hitting a high speed target is orders of magnitude harder than hitting a non-moving target on the ground. What is most impressive is the Israeli intelligence knowing where and when to attack. We launched 100 missiles and reported no gas targets hit, just some buildings. I believe that was the result of the failure intel services. Trump has to depend on what appear to be incompetents at best or traitors with a hostile political agenda.

    Barry in reply to dunce1239. | April 30, 2018 at 9:16 pm

    “We launched 100 missiles and reported no gas targets hit, just some buildings. I believe that was the result of the failure intel services. Trump has to depend on what appear to be incompetents at best or traitors with a hostile political agenda.”

    Where are you getting your information?

notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital | April 30, 2018 at 12:08 pm

RE: “Israel presumably behind the attack” GOD BLESS ISRAEL!

Now, that there is some “workplace violence” I can get behind!

Israel wants WWIII and who are we to deny it to them? 5,000 Marines with heavy equipment for an “exercise” in Jordan. Who is our existential threat in that area, nobody. We need those 5,000 troops on the Mexican border.

Seems sad and very poorly thought out. Israel really wants to start a war and see if it can survive? Not just for the next few years but for how long? An existential mistake! bibi is the threat to Israel not Iran. And somehow bibi imagines that Mr Putin will read the news in Pravda, go to the steam bath, have another vodka, visit his wife or girlfriend and do nothing. That’s not the way this is going to play out.

    johnny dollar in reply to RasMoyag. | April 30, 2018 at 1:28 pm

    Israel does not have the luxury of pretending they are not surrounded by a howling mob of lunatics.
    Unlike you, they must realistically reassess the reality of the fact that they are daily threatened with destruction by these people.
    Maybe you would be happier if they just waited for the UN to solve the problem. They, on the other hand, know that the world will be complacent if they are (again) attacked, and can only depend on themselves for survival.

      JusticeDelivered in reply to johnny dollar. | April 30, 2018 at 2:58 pm

      What would America do if we had people in adjoining countries pulling the kind of craps which those around Israel have been? I think that we would have destroyed them, I I believe Israel has the right to use whatever level of force it takes to make their adversaries leave them alone.

    Barry in reply to RasMoyag. | April 30, 2018 at 9:20 pm

    “That’s not the way this is going to play out.”

    Please ask one of your comrades at another to desk to spell it out.

    What is it with you paid trolls, can’t you come up with a decent name, RasMoyag?

smalltownoklahoman | April 30, 2018 at 12:50 pm

2.6 on the Richter Scale, just how much in the way of munitions would it take to trigger a reading like that? Good on Israel for taking out a big threat BEFORE it became one!

American Human | April 30, 2018 at 1:03 pm

Here is a thought:

Russia is “standing aside” simply because they don’t want the world to see that their vaunted S-400 air defense system, once again, utterly failed to detect and stop anything.

May Gob bless President Trump.
And may we get our d-mn posteriors in gear and get everyone we know out to vote in support. “Oh my gosh he such a mean man with bad manners” Is a child’s perspective. The smiling faces of the respectable leadership have been backstabbers for 30 years. ‘Woke’ generations that revere pop music seem to have forgotten that one.

Must be getting annoying for Iran to be having all these expensive toys of theirs being destroyed on the ground??

If course if we had a media not so tied to the destruction of Israel and Western civilisation as a whole they might just be asking why exactly does Iran have these kinds of long range offensive assets in a country where it needs local military assets for dealing with their own population issues??

That same media might also like to ask where the money is coming from to support Iran’s operations in Syria as well???

Good on Israel for taking it’s defence seriously.

With Antisemitism on the rise around the world, Israel can not chance faltering the slightest bit. Those weapons that were destroyed were intended to head toward Israel, they weren’t stored to be used in a parade. Russia would have a hard time defending against this blatant positioning of weapons.

I wonder if this may also have an effect on the Gaza invasion that is being planned…

Israel is surrounded by enemies, they act accordingly.

Evidently … something fell down and went “boom” …

David Breznick | April 30, 2018 at 8:01 pm

Leeloo explains what happened . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uwzg7SYZKF0