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Israel Broadens Fight Against Iran
(Wall Street Journal) Sune Engel Rasmussen and Felicia Schwartz - Israel is ramping up attacks against Iranian supply lines in Syria to block the flow of weapons to Hizbullah and other Tehran-backed militias, as it seeks to drive its foe away from its borders. On June 17, Israel targeted a compound near the Syria-Iraq border, according to a U.S. security official, after carrying out multiple strikes closer to home against Iranian military assets in Syria. The strike targeted a villa where Iraqi Shiite militia were working with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards to traffic weapons into Syria. The strike killed more than 20 fighters from Kata'ib Hizbullah, an Iraqi Shiite militia loyal to Iran. Last week, ahead of Monday's U.S.-Russia summit, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to enlist his help in pushing Iranian-backed forces further away from the Israel's northern border. However, "Russia doesn't have the inclination or the ability to get Iran out of Syria. It doesn't want to put more boots on the ground and it needs Iranian forces on the ground to win the war," said Dmitri Trenin, director of the Moscow Carnegie Center think tank. "What is being discussed are the parameters of Iranian presence."