Syria sustains drone attack from Iraq, tackles smuggling tunnels on Lebanon border

Syria said its bases sustained a drone attack early Monday, just a day after Damascus announced it had discovered a tunnel network into Lebanon as the country faces increasing security threats related to the war with Iran. 

What happened: The Syrian military said it faced a “large-scale drone attack” on several bases near the Iraqi border at dawn, adding that it intercepted most of the unmanned aerial vehicles. The military said it would take “appropriate measures” to address further threats against Syrian territory, the official SANA news outlet reported. 

No group immediately claimed responsibility, and Iraqi authorities did not comment.

On Sunday, the military said it discovered two “smuggling tunnels” close to the border with Lebanon, declaring that the structures were used by unspecified “Lebanese militia groups.” 

One tunnel was located in the village of Hawsh al-Sayyid Ali, just a kilometer from the Lebanese border. Syrian officials did not specify where exactly the second tunnel was located, according to SANA. Lebanon's Hezbollah operated a large smuggling network throughout Syria during the Syrian civil war when the Iran-backed party intervened in 2012 to back the Assad regime. 

Why it matters: Syria is contending with a growing number of threats and attacks amid the ongoing US and Israeli war with Iran. On March 23, the Syrian military said five missiles were fired from inside Iraq toward a base in the northeastern Hasakah province. 

Sabereen News, a Telegram channel affiliated with Iran-backed militias in Iraq, reported at the time that an American base in the area was targeted. There are around 1,000 US troops in Syria as part of the global coalition to fight the Islamic State. 

Three days after the Hasakah attack, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported claims that US, British and Israeli personnel are staying at the Sheraton and Four Seasons hotels in Damascus in an apparent threat against the sites. 

The Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah accused Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa of “betrayal” and “[selling] themselves to the agendas of the enemies” in a Sunday statement. 

“The battlefield today opens its gates to the free people of Syria,” said the group. 

Sharaa came to power in late 2024 after the rebel offensive led by his jihadist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, ousted longtime President Bashar al-Assad, who was backed by Iran, the Lebanese Hezbollah and a variety of other Iran-backed militias, including Kataib Hezbollah. 

Sharaa has not moved to reinstate relations with the Islamic Republic since Assad’s ouster, and Syria has been critical of the Iranian attacks on Gulf states in the war. 

Just days into the US-Israel-Iran war, Syria sent reinforcements to its border with Lebanon, Reuters reported. Syrian forces and Hezbollah clashed multiple times in border areas last year. 

Know more: Iran-backed militias have claimed dozens of attacks during the war, mostly targeting US forces in Iraq, leading to retaliatory American strikes. 

The Iraqi government said in a statement Friday that its forces and their American counterparts agreed to “intensify cooperation to prevent terrorist attacks and ensure that Iraqi territory is not used as a launching point for any aggression,” mentioning attacks within Iraq as well as those against US personnel, diplomatic missions and the anti-ISIS coalition. 

Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units, a collection of predominantly Shiite-led armed groups, are technically part of the armed forces but in reality operate with considerable autonomy. A number of Iran-backed militias are part of the PMU, and the Trump administration has increased pressure on Baghdad to rein them in.