The IDF revealed Friday that several suspects detained in recent months in southern Syria were part of terror cells operating on behalf of Iran’s Unit 840, a covert arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force tasked with orchestrating attacks against Israel.

According to the IDF, two field operatives — Zeidan al-Tawil and Muhammad al-Kuryan — were arrested in March and April. More recently, Israeli troops detained members of additional terror cells activated by senior IRGC figures Salah al-Husseini and Muhammad Shuayb, who were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon in July.

The IDF described Husseini and Shuayb as “prominent operatives” responsible for smuggling Iranian weapons into Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank. Interrogations of captured Syrians indicated that many recruits were unaware they were working for Iran, having been lured instead by cash payments.

Israel’s disclosure also highlights how its ground presence in Syria has grown since the December 2024 collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime. In the aftermath of Assad’s fall, the IDF seized control of the demilitarized zone along the Israeli-Syrian border, destroyed much of the Syrian military infrastructure, and established nine military posts inside southern Syria — including within the UN-monitored buffer zone.

Israeli forces have since conducted more than 300 “routine operations” in the area, the IDF said, aimed at dismantling Iranian-backed networks, intercepting weapons shipments, and preventing hostile entrenchment near Israeli territory. Troops are now operating as far as 15 kilometers (9 miles) inside Syria.

Syria has long served as a conduit for Tehran’s weapons transfers to Hezbollah in Lebanon and to West Bank terror groups, routes Israel has repeatedly sought to disrupt. While Israeli airstrikes in Syria became routine in recent years, they have tapered off since Assad’s ouster, even as Israel has opened unprecedented channels of dialogue with Syria’s new rulers.

But on Wednesday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir confirmed Israel’s return to the skies. Speaking at a Navy officers’ graduation ceremony, Zamir said Israel had struck multiple targets in recent days, including a base near Homs and sites in Latakia and Palmyra.

“In recent days, we have struck in several arenas simultaneously,” Zamir said. “In Syria, we thwarted capabilities that posed a threat to our freedom of action.”

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