Iranian-backed forces massing around Deir Ezzor city.
A new Iranian missile shipment had arrived in the eastern Syrian governorate of Deir Ezzor coming from Iraq, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on August 11.
According to the London-based monitoring group, the missiles were hidden in trucks which were carrying a shipment vegetables as a decoy. The trucks unloaded its decoy cargo in the al-Hal market in al-Mayadin in southern Deir Ezzor before heading to al-Shibli remains in the outskirts of the town. There, the missiles were unloaded and stored in newly-dug tunnels.
Iranian-backed Syrian and Iraqi groups maintain a strong presence in the southern countryside of Deir Ezzor, especially in al-Mayadin.
According to the SOHR’s report, Iran is still shipping weapons to its allies in Syria despite recent airstrike on its allies in the region.
Last month, two strikes were reported. On July 13, a drone strike targeted an unofficial military crossing on the Syrian-Iraqi border. On July 18, another drone strike destroyed a Toyota pickup truck of Iranian-backed Iraqi forces near the border line.
Israel and the US were both blamed for the recent strikes by Syrian and Iraqi sources. Both countries have been working to stop Iranian weapons shipments to Syria for years now, to no avail.
Iran is making a ring of steel in Syria and Iraq and expect a much larger buildup under President Raisi.