Iran building 'advanced weapons base' in eastern Syria: report

Iranian forces are building a massive weapons base in the eastern Syrian province of Deir az-Zour, according to reports.

Local activist Ibrahim al-Hassan told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that construction crews began work on the base two weeks ago amid high security. The base is being built around farms and close to a shrine near Mayadeen in Deir az-Zour province. 

Civilians were prevented from approaching the site by the Iranian forces, al-Hassan added.

Syrian opposition website Ain al-Furat said the base will host the second largest concentration of Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) troops in eastern Syria. 

The IRGC is reportedly constructing huge underground facilities to store weapons and munitions that arrive over the border from Iraq under the guise of agricultural produce or Shia pilgrims visiting sacred shrines.

Iranian militia units, weapons, and bases have been repeatedly targeted by Israel. 

The surrounding region will be equipped with heavy weapons such as surface-to-surface missiles under the supervision of the IRGC’s commander at Mayadeen, turning the region into a military fortress, it added. 

The IRGC is the ideological and elite arm of the Iranian military and blacklisted as a terrorist group by the US.

Iran has a strong presence in Syria, having used both its own troops and affiliated militias to intervene in the Syrian conflict and prop up Bashar al-Assad's regime. Iran insists it deployed its forces to Syria at the invitation of the regime and only as advisers. 

The news comes amid an uptick in Israeli strikes against Iranian targets in Syria, including those claimed to be weapon storage systems. Israel has recently began to target civilian infrastructure, such as Aleppo and Damascus airports, after Iran allegedly used the sites to fly in weapons.