News - Middle East: The Israeli military chief of staff has confirmed that the Tel Aviv regime was behind an early November attack on an Iranian fuel convoy heading to Lebanon near the Syria-Iraq border, saying that the airstrike was carried out by the Israeli Air Force.

Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi asserted during a conference at the Reichman University in the city of Herzliya north of Tel Aviv on Wednesday that Israeli intelligence had detected the convoy and launched the aerial assault.

“We could have not known a few weeks ago about the Syrian convoy passing from Iraq to Syria. We could have not known what was in it,” Kochavi told the conference.

He further claimed that “advanced capabilities” allowed Israeli pilots to carry out the strike.

He said such missions are often complicated by heavy anti-aircraft fire. “They need to attack. They need to strike. 

They need to return,” he said, adding, “They need to make sure in some of the attacks that they don’t kill whoever shouldn’t be killed.”

Iraqi security and border officials said an airstrike targeted a convoy of 22 tankers carrying Iranian fuel that had entered Qa’im border crossing on the Syrian side of the border with Iraq late on November 8.