IDF reveals commandos captured man in Syria gathering intel on border for Iran
Elite forces entered Syrian territory in July and snatched Ali Suleiman al-Asi, who told interrogators he was told to monitor troop movements along border, says military
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
Israeli commandos carried out a raid in southern Syria where they captured a Syrian man who was allegedly carrying out surveillance operations on the border on behalf of Iran, the IDF revealed Sunday in a rare acknowledgment of a ground operation in its northeastern neighbor.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, the raid in Syria was carried out in recent months by the Egoz commando unit, along with field interrogators of the Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504. Local Syrian media reported that the incident took place on July 19.
The commandos captured Ali Suleiman al-Asi, a Syrian man who lived in the village of Saida, in the Daraa Governorate.
The IDF said that al-Asi worked on behalf of Iran, and was involved in collecting intelligence on the Israeli military’s operations along the Syrian border “for future terror activity.”
The military was “closely monitoring” al-Asi before he was captured and taken to Israel for questioning.
His arrest has “prevented and disrupted a future attack and led to the exposure of the modus operandi of Iranian entities on the Golan Heights front,” the IDF said.
The IDF released footage of the mission and also from al-Asi’s interrogation, during which he said that he was approached by a man who told him: “Your area is good, strategic, we can get something from this.” Al-Asi said that the man was “linked to Iran.”
The detained Syrian man told Israeli interrogators that he was instructed by the Iranian-linked source to “just observe the borders,” while under the guise of Syria’s military intelligence, and pass on information on Israeli patrols.
He told interrogators that, among other things, he passed on information about troop and tank movements on the Israeli side of the border.
Ali Suleiman al-Asi, a Syrian man allegedly working on behalf of Iran, who was captured by Israeli commandos in southern Syria, in an interrogation video published on November 3, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
Israel has been carrying out airstrikes inside Syria since the outbreak of that country’s civil war in 2011, mainly targeting attempts to transfer weapons to the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah terror group or to keep Iranian fighters themselves from gaining a foothold near Israel’s border.
In July, Israeli special forces allegedly carried out a raid on an Iranian weapons facility in the Masyaf area in Syria, which has long been associated with the manufacture of chemical weapons and precision missiles by the Syrian regime and Iranian forces.
That raid was said to have been carried out alongside Israeli air strikes on military facilities in the area that reportedly killed at least 14 people and wounded 43.
Local Syrian media reported at the time that the strikes hit the area surrounding the Scientific Studies and Research Center, known as CERS or SSRC, which according to Israel is used by Iranian forces to manufacture precision surface-to-surface missiles.
Various reports in foreign media claimed that Israeli troops operated on the ground during the action at Masyaf, which lies about 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of Israel, though only about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Syria’s western coastline.
The reports said that commandos of the Israeli Air Force’s Shaldag Unit rappelled down from helicopters and raided CERS. Israeli troops removed equipment and documents and then laid explosives to destroy the facility.
The IDF has not publicly confirmed the details of the operation.
Since Hamas’s brutal October 7, 2023, massacre, which saw some 1,200 people killed in southern Israel and 251 kidnapped, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iranian-backed terror targets in Syria and has also struck Syrian army air defenses and some Syrian forces.
