WW3 ALERT: Iran Threatens ‘Strikes Will Be Met With Force’ After US-led Syria Attacks

Iran has issued a chilling new warning to the United States an allied forces which allegedly coordinated an attack on Syria on Sunday. Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei has warned that attacks on Iranian military bases by the US or its allies will not be tolerated and will be met with “firm force.”

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of Iran, has launched a blistering verbal attack against the US in the wake of missile strikes on Syrian bases in Hama and Aleppo on Sunday night, according to The Daily Star.  In a bellicose speech on Monday, Khamenei accused the US of causing a “regional crisis” in the Middle East by creating “instability” that has “brought misery to people.”

The Syrian government says that rockets struck several military bases outside of Hama and Aleppo in new “aggression” by unidentified enemies. “Syria is being exposed to a new aggression with some military bases in rural Hama and Aleppo hit with enemy rockets,” an army source reported to state television, according to TelesurTV. The state news agency says the source of the blasts is being investigated by authorities.

Missiles struck a number of Syrian military facilities in strikes that a UK-based war monitor said killed at least 26 troops, many of whom were Iranians.  Iran will respond in kind to missile strikes on any of its bases in Syria or elsewhere, Khamenei was quoted as saying by Israeli state media.  “The era of ‘hit and run’ attacks has ended, and from now on attacks will be met with firm force,” Khamenei said just hours after the missile attack on Syria that has been blamed on Israel, the US, and Britain.

Allegations RAF jets were involved were denied by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) but the US military is yet to comment. According to Russian, Syrian, and Iranian media reports, Sunday’s strike on military bases in Hama and Aleppo appears to have been carried out by Israel, which has been accused of bombing Iranian military bases in the past, most recently on Syria’s T4 air base earlier this month.

“All these reports over [an] attack on an Iranian military base in Syria and the martyrdom of several Iranian military advisers in Syria are baseless,” an official told Iran’s Tasnim news agency.

Russia Ready To Send Ground Troops To Syria: FARS

Iran news agency FARS reports that according to Syrian military sources, Moscow has informed Damascus of its preparedness to dispatch ground troops to Syria.

FARS - which like most US media should always be taken with a gran of salt - quotes the Al-Hadath news, according to whose sources Russia has announced that in case of the Syrian army"s request it is ready to send ground forces to Syria. The sources said that special Russian forces are prepared to be deployed in regions which are experiencing the most pressures by the terrorist groups.

They added that the technical aspects of the plan have been studied and prepared by Russia, saying that the plan can be implemented upon Russian President Vladimir Putin"s order after Damascus" official request.

A Russian daily reported earlier this month that the country"s soldiers are about to shoulder the responsibility of restoring security to the Christian-populated regions during the Syrian Army"s imminent anti-terrorism operations in Northern Hama.

FARS adds that according to Russian Izvestia, the Russian units will help popular forces in Hama province to restore security to the town of Mahradeh, whose population are mainly Christians.  The daily added that terrorists are under the Syrian Army"s siege from all directions.

There have been fierce clashes between the government forces and militants near Hahradeh since April 4th. "Informed sources" believe that the army intends to complete the siege of the terrorists in Northern Hama to clean the region up to the border with Idlib province.

A deployment of Russian troops in Syria may coincide with a deployment of US ground forces to Syria. Two weeks ago, Bloomberg reported that Trump"s national security advisor, H.R. McMaster was planning on sending between 10,000 and 50,000 troops to Syria. Needless to say, a showdown between thousands of Russian and US troops in Syria is unlikely to have a happy ending.