Former Israeli intelligence chief: Iran will likely seek payback for the latest strikes in Syria

Airstrikes in northwest Syria are believed to have killed more than a dozen Iranian personnel.
The perpetrator of the strikes has not been confirmed, but they appear to have been carried out by Israel.
The death toll makes an Iranian response, and potential escalation, more likely, according to a former Israeli army intelligence chief.

Strikes in northwest Syria on Sunday night could bring retaliation from Tehran if Iranian personnel were killed, former Israeli Defense Force intelligence chief Amos Yadlin said on Monday.

Yadlin, a retired army general, said the intensity of the blasts at military bases near Hama and Aleppo — so big they caused what felt like a minor earthquake — indicated they were likely not carried out by Syrian rebels, who are under attack by the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad and its partner forces.

While the perpetrator of Sunday's strikes is not confirmed, the attacks come a few weeks after what appears to have been an Israeli strike on the T4 military base that coordinates Iranian-backed militias in Syria. (That came after a gas attack allegedly carried out by the Assad regime but did not appear to be in response to that attack.)

That strike reportedly killed seven Iranians, including an officer in the country's drone program. An Iranian drone entering Israeli airspace in February previously prompted an Israeli strike on the T4 base earlier this year, which led to Syrian air defenses shooting down an Israeli F-16.

The high death toll in Sunday's strikes would mark a considerable escalation in a quiet conflict between Israel and Iran in Syria. Israeli officials worry that as Assad gains an advantage in Syria's civil war, Iran is shifting focus to enhancing its military capacities in the country. Israel has bombed targets it says are part of that effort several times.

Israel is also concerned Iran is using the Syrian civil war to strengthen its partners in the region and has attacked what it believes are convoys of arms headed to Hezbollah.

A friendly meeting with the new US secretary of state

Sunday's strikes came a few hours after what appears to have been a friendly meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and newly installed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Netanyahu called Pompeo "a true friend of Israel" and "a true friend of the Jewish people." Pompeo said Israel had a "special place in his heart."

Pompeo also offered tough talk on Iran, saying President Donald Trump would withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal "if we can't fix it" and assuring Netanyahu that the US is "deeply concerned about Iran's dangerous escalation of threats to Israel and the region, and Iran's ambition to dominate the Middle East."

"The United States is with Israel in this fight, and we strongly support Israel's sovereign right to defend itself," Pompeo added.

Iran offered tough talk of its own. "The time of attacking us and fleeing has ended," Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei reportedly said Sunday night. "Your strikes will be met with strikes."

But, he added, he believes a response is coming, even if it is not clear when or where. "The Iranian retaliation is on its way," he said.