Iran-backed militants may be behind Israel-Syria flare-up - Reuters

Armed groups linked to Iran may have played a role in rising tensions between Syria and Israel, Reuters reported on Wednesday, after Israel launched airstrikes in response to what it said were two projectiles fired from Syrian territory.

Israel held Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa responsible for the reported fire on Tuesday. It was the first Israeli strike in Syria in nearly a month.

The Syrian government said the Israeli attacks caused “heavy human and material losses,” denied posing any threat to regional parties, and stressed the need to dismantle armed groups and restore full state control in the south.

Reuters cited a Syrian official as saying that remnants of Assad-era militias with ties to Iran and operating in the Quneitra area may have an interest in provoking Israeli retaliation as a way to escalate tensions and undermine current stabilization efforts.

Several Arab outlets published a statement from a little-known group named "Martyr Muhammad Deif Brigades," an apparent reference to Hamas' military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024.

Around the same time that Israel reported the projectiles from Syria, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said they targeted the Israeli city of Jaffa with a ballistic missile, describing the attack as part of their support for Palestinians during the war in Gaza.