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Iran's Most Powerful Unit Yet in Syria Targets U.S. and Israel
(Newsweek) Tom O'Connor - Iran has assembled a heavily armed unit comprising thousands of fighters capable of conducting attacks on U.S. troops in Syria as well as against neighboring Israel, according to a document shared with Newsweek by a member of an intelligence agency of a nation allied with the U.S. The "Imam Hossein Division" is linked to Iran's expeditionary Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Armed with precision-guided munitions and both attack and spy drones, along with a broad array of lighter weaponry, the division conducted an intensive barrage of drone and rocket attacks that hit the U.S. military garrison in Al-Tanf in October 2021. The division has also launched attacks against Israel, including a surface-to-surface missile attack in January 2019, a rocket attack in June 2019, and an attempted drone attack in August 2019 that was intercepted by the IDF. Most of its operatives are Syrian Shiites, especially Alawites, although some are from Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Sudan.