March 26, 2025 (EIRNS)—Using the excuse that “at least seven gunmen opened fire on Israeli forces operating in southern Syria,” IDF troops on March 25 “returned fire, including with tank shelling, and an Israeli Air Force drone carried out an airstrike against the gunmen,” according to a report in the Times of Israel. There is no mention in that account of the fact that the IDF forces were in southern Syria illegally, in the first place—i.e., they invaded the country during the chaos surrounding the fall of the Assad government, and have never left.
The IDF carried out additional strikes on March 25 in other parts of Syria, in those cases without bothering to invent a justification. The Israeli military statement simply reported that they had targeted “remaining military capabilities” of the former Assad government at two Syrian airfields, after hitting them both with an initial round of bombings on March 21, which the military described as “extensive.” “The IDF will continue to act to remove any threat to Israeli citizens,” it added. The Times of Israel reported that the attacks “were said to have taken out capabilities that would ensure the preservation of Israel’s aerial superiority in the region.”
Nor are the Israelis the only foreign-run force intent on dismembering Syria. The March 25 Financial Times reported that the infamous White Helmets have returned to Damascus, having resolved earlier disputes with the HTS governing authorities. The White Helmets are a foreign-funded NGO that specialized in providing international disinformation about Assad government “atrocities"—which were repeatedly proven to be staged incidents with actors.
Even the FT had to admit that the White Helmets have been “fighting smear campaigns by the Syrian government and its ally Russia, who claimed they were infiltrated by al-Qaeda and also had ties to MI6.”
The FT makes hay out of their return to action—the extent of which has not been independently corroborated. “But last month,” the FT wrote, “they got a hero’s welcome when clearing a rubble-strewn road between two of the Syrian capital’s suburbs.… The White Helmets have now stepped in to provide vital services across the country as the government labors to rebuild the war-shattered state.”
The government, the FT stated, “is so short on funds and staff that it is forced to rely on organizations such as the White Helmets, who declined to comment on past clashes with the militant group.… The exact shape of the White Helmets’ role under the future administration is not yet clear, but support from its 3,400 personnel does not come close to what is generally expected from a state.”
The FT concludes: “It is unclear how long the White Helmets can continue providing the current level of help, since about a quarter of their funding has come from USAID, the U.S. government development agency abolished by President Donald Trump in January.”
