In the early hours of Monday morning, two Israeli fighter jets crossed into southern Lebanon and launched a number of missiles at Syria’s strategic T4—or Tiyas—airbase in Homs province. The missiles struck a section of the base used exclusively by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its external specialist Quds Force and Hezbollah to house senior personnel, strategic weaponry and sophisticated drones in semi-hardened air hangars. At least 14 people were killed in the missile strike, which Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov later labeled a “very dangerous development” in an unusually harsh rebuke of the sort of Israeli action that Moscow usually has glossed over quietly.Apparently, Israel has hit this airbase before but, because Russian aircraft operate from the base, has always chosen to notify the Russians before striking. This time, they did not. This could be a big deal. It follows a clash in February in which Iran apparently lured an Israeli response by sending a drone across the Israeli border. After the Israelis launched a retaliatory strike against the Tiyas airfield that launched the drone, striking the IRGC section of the airfield, Iranian and Syrian surface-to-air missile sites shot down an Israeli aircraft. Apparently it took a call from Russian President Vladimir Putin to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt further Israeli retaliatory strikes. Looks like the gloves might be off.
Yeah, it did.
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