What is the significance of the Israeli attack on the Zaynab shrine in Syria?
On the evening of June 26, explosions were reported near an important shrine south of Damascus. Set Zaynab is about 10 kilometers southwest of Damascus city center and about a half-hour drive away. Reports from Syria said air defense systems were active on Wednesday evening to ward off air strikes, according to Syrian state media. Photos posted online showed smoke rising from buildings near the Shiite shrine, which bears the same name as the town around it.
The important mosque is also called Sayyida Zaynab and is a pilgrimage site for Shiites. It is named after the tomb of Zaynab, the daughter of Ali and Fatima, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. The area was renovated thanks to the support of Iran and the Shiites, so that the mosque complex is now quite large and has a golden dome.
As of Thursday, it was not clear what had actually happened on Wednesday night. “On Wednesday at around 11:40 p.m. local time, the Israeli enemy launched an airstrike from the Golan Heights on several locations in the southern region and our air defenses intercepted the enemy’s missiles,” a Syrian source told local media. Later reports did not provide details on who was killed or what the target of the alleged airstrike in Set Zaynab was.
The area of this mosque south of Damascus is known as a hotbed of activity by Hezbollah and Iranian-backed militias, as well as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. It is important to understand some of the context. In April, an Israeli airstrike on a building next to the Iranian consulate in Damascus led to Iran firing more than 300 rockets and drones at Israel on April 13 and 14.
Iranian fronts
After the tensions in April, there appears to be a detente in Syria. Israel has conducted a campaign against Iranian fortifications in Syria between wars. This campaign usually consisted of combating the smuggling of weapons to Hezbollah. Not all the details are known, but over the years foreign reports suggest that Israel has carried out thousands of airstrikes in Syria.
Since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, Iran has continued to threaten Israel through Syria. Iran has set up several fronts against Israel. These include Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but also the Houthis in Yemen, Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria, and Hezbollah in Lebanon. This week, the Houthis claimed to have attacked an Israeli-linked ship, and a militia in Iraq attacked Eilat. This is the larger context of the incident south of Damascus.
What is important to know about the Zaynab Shrine is that it has been targeted by other groups in the past. Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, it has served as a center of pro-Iranian activities. For example, at the beginning of the war, numerous militias and the IRGC gathered at the shrine to “defend” it. This provided the pretext for greater Iranian intervention and Hezbollah intervention in Syria in 2012. Even after Syrian rebels were largely defeated in southern Syria in 2018, the shrine remained a center of pro-Iranian groups.
In July 2023, a motorcycle rigged with explosives was used in a terrorist attack on Shiites near the shrine. This happened on the eve of Ashura, a Shiite holiday. The attack was likely carried out by ISIS.
In December 2023, Razi Mousavi, an IRGC commander, was killed in an airstrike near the Zaynab Shrine. Iran’s state media IRNA said he was “killed in an attack by the Zionist regime.” In January 2024, an airstrike hit an IRGC base in the same city as the shrine, Iran International reported. The shrine is therefore a major center of pro-Iranian activities and will remain so in the future. It should be considered a major hub of the Iranian axis in the region.
Meet Serena from Season 6 of Love Island USA
Sadie Sink thinks about being part of Taylor Swift’s All Too Well video with Dylan O’Brien
Will Smith presents his new song with a live show at the BET Awards
About The Author
