Hezbollah, Iran had prevented Israeli incursion into Syria - al-Manar

Iran and Hezbollah were Syria's bulwark against an Israeli incursion which is now unfolding, the Tehran-backed militant group's media outlet al-Manar said in a news analysis on Tuesday.

The comments were among the first from the group after Bashar al-Assad's downfall at the hands of armed insurgents, an upheaval that deprives it and the Islamic Republic of their main Arab ally and key nexus for Lebanon-bound weapons.

"A suspicious and insolent silence regarding the aggression is taking place, except for some voices here and there in addition to those who have a history of confronting this enemy and knowing its ambitions very well, such as the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon (Hezbollah) and the Islamic Republic of Iran," al-Manar said.

"The enemy unleashed its ambitions, immediately starting a military operation to nibble away at areas in southern Syria, including Mount Hermon and a number of cities and villages, in addition to a wide-scale air aggression that included almost all of the Syrian army’s capabilities, specifically its advanced weapons," it added.

"So where are those who care about Syria’s freedom?"

Israeli airstrikes have sunk the Syrian fleet targeted Syrian military bases and alleged chemical weapons facilities in the days since Assad fled the country for Russia on Sunday. Its ground forces also plunged into a buffer region on the Golan Heights in place since a 1974 war.