Breaking news in the war… Iran surprise from North Korea while the Middle East is boiling! A first since 2019

The beginning of the events that triggered the retaliatory war, in which Israel and Iran directly attacked each other for the first time, was the missile that hit a house in the Seyyide Zeynep neighborhood in the last days of 2023.

Reza Mousavi, the experienced commander of the Quds Force, the foreign operations unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, who had been in Syria for almost 30 years, was killed by Israel in his home on the outskirts of Damascus.

The murder of General Mousavi, who even had an office in the Syrian Ministry of Defense, was followed by the destruction of a building in the Seyyide Zeynep neighborhood. Quds Force intelligence officers were meeting in the building that was targeted in January, and many of them died, including the Syrian intelligence chief and his deputy.

The Tehran administration did not respond to these Israeli attacks, but only swore revenge as usual. However, the missiles fired at the Iranian Embassy complex in Damascus in broad daylight on April 1 changed the equation. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, one of the most important figures of the Quds Force, his deputy and other Iranian officers died in the five-storey consulate building, which was destroyed.

After the diplomatic mission was hit, all eyes turned to Tehran, and Iran pressed the button on the evening of April 13. Iran, which launched more than 300 missiles and kamikaze drones at its arch-enemy Israel, thus launched an attack on Israel on the Mediterranean coast from its own territory for the first time in history.

Israel retaliated a few days later, and successive explosions were heard at midnight at the military base in Isfahan.

The showdown in Syria that pitted the two countries against each other began in 2011. With the start of the civil war, Iran came to the aid of Bashar Assad and became involved in conflicts with militia forces and its own officers.

Israel, on the other hand, went on red alert after Iran settled in Syria on its northern border, and has carried out hundreds of air attacks on Syria in the past 13 years. Israel has rarely claimed responsibility for attacks on Iranian militias and bases.

International news agency AFP announced today that Iran has withdrawn its forces from southern Syria. AFP, basing its news on a source close to Hezbollah and a war observer, stated that there are no longer any Iranian forces or militias, especially in cities such as Daraa and Quneitra. Daraa and Quneitra are cities adjacent to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The source close to Hezbollah said that Iran actually started withdrawing its forces after the intelligence meeting in Damascus was hit on January 20.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that the latest withdrawal included the capital Damascus as well as the south of the country. According to SOHR, Iranian forces were replaced by Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraqi militias.

Many senior Iranian commanders left Syria, while those who remained moved to Aleppo in the north and Deir ez-Zor on the Iraqi border.

Tehran maintains that it has no combat troops in Syria and only provides military advice and training to the Damascus administration.

However, it is known that there are approximately 3 thousand Iranian soldiers in Syria. In addition, tens of thousands of militia forces brought from Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan, trained by the Iranian army, are also stationed in Syria.

Those who recently traveled to Damascus, the capital of Syria, reported that the Iranian presence in the city is less visible, and many Iranian army offices in old Damascus are closed. Most of the Iranian flags and portraits of their leaders seen in many districts of Damascus have also disappeared.

The place where the Iranian presence continues to be visible is the Seyyide Zeynep neighborhood, where Reza Mousavi and other intelligence commanders were shot. The southern suburb of Damascus is an important pilgrimage spot for Shiites.