Syria says it foiled smuggling of anti-aircraft missiles, reportedly meant for Hezbollah

Syria’s interior ministry says it has seized SAM-7 anti-aircraft missiles that were being smuggled out of the country.

The weapons were located in a house in the town of al-Bukamal, close to the Iraqi border in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor region, the ministry says. It does not specify the date of the operation, the source of the weapons, where they were headed, or how many there were.

وردت معلومات دقيقة إلى مديرية الأمن في البوكمال تفيد بإخفاء صواريخ مضادة للطيران داخل أحد المنازل، تمهيدًا لتهريبها خارج البلاد.

وبناءً على هذه المعلومات، نُفذت عملية مداهمة محكمة أسفرت عن ضبط صواريخ من نوع "سام-7". pic.twitter.com/7L1hgKcIhn

— وزارة الداخلية السورية (@syrianmoi) December 22, 2025

Sources close to the ministry are cited by UK-based Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat as saying the missiles were being smuggled to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The sources do not identify the origin of the weapons, but say Iran used to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah through al-Bukamal during the 14-year Syrian civil war that ended when rebels toppled Syria’s longtime Iran-backed President Bashar al-Assad a year ago.

Local sources quoted by Asharq al-Awsat say the area still has “sleeper cells belonging to Iran and Hezbollah that are trying to smuggle these weapons.” The new Syrian regime has succeeded in arresting some of the smugglers, the sources say.

Pro-Iranian Iraqi militias seized al-Bukamal during the Syrian civil war and dug a large network of smuggling tunnels that passed near an Iranian base called Imam Ali, mere kilometers from the border with Iraq, Asharq al-Awsat says.

Citing footage published two days ago, the newspaper says the tunnels were large enough for a vehicle to pass through and appear to have been a major smuggling route.

#د24:
فيديو يُظهر شبكة أنفاق ضخمة أنشأتها الميليشـ.ـيات الإيـ.ـرانية على الحدود السورية – العراقية، بالقرب من قاعدة "الإمام علي" المحيطة بمدينة #البوكمال في ريف #ديرالزور، قبل سقوط نظام الأسد.#أخبار_ديرالزور #ديرالزور_24 pic.twitter.com/DkYxhRCqza

— ديرالزور24 (@DeirEzzor24) December 20, 2025

The local sources quoted by Asharq al-Awsat say the new Syrian regime has uncovered and destroyed some of the tunnels, but not all.