U.S. intelligence officials revealed that according to classified intelligence reports, Iran is “arming militants in Syria” in order to conduct deadly attacks against American troops. According to Foreign Desk News the leaked documents show details that the Islamic Republic of Iran “is arming militants in Syria for a new phase of deadly attacks against American troops while working with Russia to drive US influence from the region.”
“According to classified intelligence reports, Tehran and its regional allies are creating and training forces to use powerful armor-piercing roadside bombs to target American military vehicles and kill US personnel” reports Foreign Desk News.
Information from another classified intelligence document reveals new efforts by Moscow, Damascus, and Tehran to push the U.S. from Syria, allowing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to reconquer eastern Syrian provinces currently controlled by US-backed Kurdish forces.
“Iran has been waging a shadow war against the United States since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, aimed at kicking the US out of the Middle East, diminishing America’s power and reach by either subordinating or reducing rival local powers (such as the Sunni Arab States as led by Saudi Arabia and Israel), and augmenting their own power by aligning closely with China and Russia, America’s two principal rivals on the world stage,” said Brandon Weichert, author of the forthcoming book The Shadow War; Iran’s Quest for Supremacy and senior editor of 19FortyFive.com.
The classified reports revealed communications by Syrian and Lebanese militia groups affiliated with Tehran to use such weaponry against American forces. Last February, US-backed Kurdish fighters seized three bombs in the northeastern province of Syria aimed at US soldiers.
According to Weichert, Iran cannot match the US military in a fair fight and instead has embraced “asymmetrical warfare and the use of terror tactics to kill Americans in Syria is one of the methods, along with others (such as deploying drones and precision-guided munitions to Lebanon and, until recently, Yemen), that are designed to weaken and push out the Americans to give Iran the kind of space it needs to build its own sphere of influence in the region.”
According to intelligence officials, senior-ranking Russian, Iranian, and Syrian military and intelligence officials met in November last year and agreed to establish a “coordination center” for directing the campaign.