Israel Coordinated Some Syria Strikes With Pentagon

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have been coordinating airstrikes in Syria with the US over the past several years, The Wall Street Journal has reported citing several anonymous current and former Washington officials.

The details of the strikes were reportedly forwarded in advance to the US Central Command (CENTCOM) and then on to the US defence secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in order to receive a green light.

Not all of the operations were coordinated with the US, the media’s sources said. Coordination was reportedly required to prevent situations in which Israeli strikes would impede US-led ops against Daesh*. In 2019, the parameters of one airstrike had to be changed as the US was preparing the assassination of the then-Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

For the most part, CENTOM and the Pentagon reviewed Israeli air operations taking place near the coalition's Al Tanf Base, located in south Syria. The IDF sometimes use the base to enter Syrian airspace laterally so as to encounter less air defences.

Most of such missions coordinated between Israel and the US were green lighted by the US military command, even though these airstrikes went against international law. Occasionally, Washington asked Tel Aviv to change some of the mission's parameters.

Tel Aviv has taken responsibility for only a small portion of the air attacks that Damascus accuses it of carrying out in Syria. The IDF justifies the illegal strikes by the need to eliminate the threat posed by Iranian and pro-Iranian forces allegedly deployed on Syria's soil. Iran dismisses these allegations and, along with Damascus, condemns the attacks and the violation of international law.