Israel occupation army announces kidnapping of Syrian ‘working’ for IRGC

The Israeli army announced on Sunday evening that it has kidnapped a Syrian citizen from Syria, claiming that he works for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The kidnapping came two days after the occupation army kidnapped a Lebanese citizen in Lebanon, claiming that he was a Hezbollah military official.

“In a night operation across the border with Syria, Egoz Unit forces, under the command of the 210th Division, arrested a member of an Iranian network in Syrian territory,” said the army. It explained that the detainee is called Ali Suleiman Al-Asi, who resides in Sidon in southern Syria.

The army claimed that “he was working to collect information about the [Israeli] forces in the border area for the Revolutionary Guard [Corps].” It added that he is being questioned, but did not say when the kidnapping took place, other than that it was in “recent months”.

This is the first operation of its kind in Syrian territory announced by the Israeli army. There was no comment from Damascus or Tehran on this matter as of 17:30 GMT yesterday.

Israel has launched occasional raids against Syria which it claims targets groups supported by Iran. The occupation regime and Iran have exchanged air and missile strikes in recent months.

On Saturday, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati asked Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib to file a complaint with the UN Security Council regarding Israel’s kidnapping of a Lebanese citizen. The Lebanese security services announced that they would open an investigation into allegations of the kidnapping of Imad Amhaz, a merchant navy captain from the Batroun area in northern Lebanon at dawn on Friday.

While Israeli media claimed that Special Forces arrested a Hezbollah military official, Amhaz’s father insisted that his son is a civilian sea captain and has no connection to Hezbollah.

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