Authorities in the Syrian capital of Damascus and the countryside of northern Quneitra province near the Syrian-Israeli border have discovered two separate arms caches including Western and Israeli-made weapons, ammunition, pharmaceuticals, and blankets featuring the logo of the United Nations High Commissioners for Refugees agency, the Syrian Arab News Agency has reported.
Images of one of the caches published by SANA shows a variety of armaments, including automatic rifles, RPG grenades appearing to be wrapped in their original packaging, row upon row of bullets for heavy machine guns, and landmines, along with boxes of medical equipment including bandages, masks, and various chemicals, and the distinctive grey UNHCR blankets.
Over the past several years, as they have liberated Syria of a broad assortment of terrorist groups, including Daesh (ISIS)* and the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front,* the Syrian military has discovered a wide variety of Western and Israeli-made weapons, from small arms and grenades and mortar launchers to communications equipment, field hospital supplies to US-made TOW anti-tank missiles, C4 explosives, and even tanks.
The Quneitra region, an area of the Golan Heights partially held by Israel since the June 1967 Arab-Israeli War, has been a source of tension between the two Middle Eastern countries for decades, with skirmishes regularly reported along the contested border area even before the outbreak of the foreign-backed Syrian conflict in 2011. During the war, Daesh established a stronghold in Syria’s Quneitra region, with the terrorists finally vanquished from the area completely in 2018.
*Terrorist groups outlawed in Russia and other countries.