Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard had single-handedly introduced a new weapon when taking up arms side by side by Syria’s regime against ISIS in the Badia region. Air-launched guided missile activity was registered–meanwhile in a deal brokered with regime forces, ISIS militants were given an order to exit Hama to Idlib, but ISIS militiamen rebelled against the orders, and refused to withdraw from Hama’s eastern rural zone.
A video clip broadcasted on Iran’s Alalam News Network showed aircraft carrying guided missiles and said they belonged to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Missiles targeted Badia posts in Syria, without specifying any locations. Other Iranian outlets reported that the attacks took place near the Syrian-Iraqi border and destroyed vehicles, military equipment, and ammunition.
Syrian opposition sources based in Deir ez-Zor said that Iranian aircraft hovered over south-eastern Damascus countryside reaching all the way to the west of Abu Kamal area in Deir ez-Zor border with Iraq. Iranian aerial activity in the area near Deir ez-Zor is recent — usually, surveillance aircraft belong to Syrian regime forces and Russian air fleets, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat. Tehran had insisted on openly broadcasting employing new weapons in Syria.
In parallel to the launch of short-range missiles from Iran to the Deir ez-Zor area last summer, Tehran announced the launch of drones nearby coalition forces present at the U.S. occupied Al-Tanf base in Syria but did not announce the use of guided missiles launched by aircraft already running.
In the video, two simultaneous images of the missile’s trajectory can be seen. The first image is taken from a camera installed in the front, the second image came from from a reconnaissance aircraft. A tank was one of the targets that were hit, meaning that the guided missiles have anti-armor capability.
The U.S. military destroyed an Iranian reconnaissance plane that tried to approach the Al-Tanf camp.
The Al Waleed border crossing is known in Syria as Al-Tanf. It is one of three official border crossings between Syria and Iraq. Al Waleed is close to the westernmost point of Iraq and the northeastern-most point of Jordan, in the desert Badia region. It serves as the main border checkpoint on the highway between Damascus and Baghdad. The Al-Tanf checkpoint is on the Syrian side of the border, in Homs province.
Al-Tanf military base is used by the Washington-led coalition to train rebels belonging to the “Free Syrian Army” to fight against ISIS terrorists centered near the Syrian-Iraqi border.