Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
Iran has not eased up its efforts to establish a military presence in Syria as new satellite images reveal the Islamic Republic has established its largest military base to day in the war-torn country and is in the process of moving thousands of troops into the facility, Fox News reported Tuesday.
and Twitter
The satellite images, obtained through Western intelligence sources, show the military compound has been constructed on the Syria-Iraq border, where Israel reportedly attacked Iranian targets on several occasions over the past few months.
Although the construction has not been fully completed, the base is expected to become operational in the next few months, say analysts at ImageSat International, an Israeli civilian satellite company that provided the pictures.
The compound is located less than 320 km (200 miles) from a United States army post and has five different buildings - surrounded by massive dirt piles - suitable for housing precision-guided missiles, said ISI experts.
Israel has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria in recent years, targeting primarily weapons depots and facilities used for manufacturing of advanced missiles as well as arms shipments believed to be headed from Iran to its Shiite proxy Hezbollah.
The latest Israeli strike in Syria occurred last week when the IDF struck several targets near Damascus in order to foil an "attempt by the (Iranian Revolutionary Guard's) Al Quds force to carry out a terror attack " from Syrian soil.
According to the IDF, the attack was to be carried out by drones were sent from Syria to hit Israeli targets.
The Lebanese terror group Hezbollah said at least two of their operatives had been killed in the strike.