The Iranian regime has used earthquake relief flights to move weapons and military equipment to its strategic ally Syria.
Reuters cites nine Syrian, Iranian, Israeli, and Western sources. According to the report, the goal was to bolster Iranian defenses against Israel in Syria and strengthen Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Recap: After the Feb. 6 earthquake in northern Syria and Turkey, hundreds of flights from Iran took off for Syria's Aleppo, Damascus and Latakia airports to bring supplies, for seven weeks, the sources said. More than 6,000 people died across Syria, according to the United Nations.
The supplies included advanced communications equipment and radar batteries, as well as spare parts needed for a planned upgrade of Syria's civil war air defense system provided by Iran, the sources said.
The Iranian regime denied the allegations, and the Syrian government did not respond to a request for comment, the sources said.
Israel, however, responded quickly to the arms shipments to Syria, they said. Israeli airstrikes against the arms shipments had been based on information about which truck in a long convoy to target.
An Israeli defense official told Reuters the goods were delivered mainly to the Aleppo airport in northern Syria, organized by the Syrian Unit 18000 of the Quds Force, the foreign spy and paramilitary arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
The Aleppo airstrip, he said, was shelled by Israel just hours after two Iranian cargo planes carrying weapons supplies landed under the pretext of providing aid.
"The quake was a sad disaster, but at the same time it was a help from God for us to help our brothers in Syria in their fight against their enemies. We immediately sent a load of weapons to Syria," Reuters quoted a regional source close to Iran's clerical leadership.