By Nohad Topalian | 2024-09-12

BEIRUT -- The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) recently completed the construction of a large military base in Syria's Homs province, with allied militias transferring advanced weapons into underground warehouses at the site.

"These militias operate outside the state, and use violence to advance the Iranian regime's agenda," Syrian opposition researcher Turki Mustafa told Al-Fassel.

The new base in eastern rural Homs, near Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi, underscores the threat the IRGC poses to the region by shoring up "Iran's military presence in strategically important Syrian areas," he said.

The new base is not far from the Tiyas military air base (T-4).

"Military officers and engineers from the IRGC and its Quds Force were tasked with studying the location," Mustafa said.

They were asked to prepare engineering plans and plans for building fortifications and observation points and the placement of weapons, artillery and missile systems, he said.

They also were tasked with "supervising the equipping of the base and digging trenches around its perimeter and the construction of massive secret underground warehouses to store advanced weapons and ballistic missiles."

The base was kept under heavy guard, under the supervision of IRGC military commander Rahim Tahhan, as it was readied for use in August.

"Before the work was completed, the militias transferred tanks, armored vehicles and antiaircraft weapons into it," Mustafa said.

IRGC-aligned militias "deployed a field artillery battalion, an air defense battalion and heavy and light missile launchers on the outskirts of the base," which was fortified with earthen berms, he said.

Advanced air defense systems and Russian-made radar systems were deployed around the base, and advanced weapons and air defense systems that were not ready for use were moved to underground warehouses, according to Mustafa.

Continued smuggling of weapons

"By continuing to smuggle weapons and building a large military base in the Homs countryside, the Iranian regime poses a real threat to the region," Syrian researcher and opposition figure Mustafa al-Nuaimi told Al-Fassel.

"The storage of weapons and missiles underground confirms its continued smuggling of weapons into Syria," he said.

The smuggling of weapons and fighters by land across the Iraq-Syria border "is camouflaged under the guise of convoys of visitors to the Sayyida Zainab shrine near Damascus," al-Nuaimi said.

On September 1, buses entered the Syrian province of Deir Ezzor from Iraq via the Qaim-Albu Kamal crossing, he said, travelling from there to the Sayyida Zainab shrine.

"Weapons continue to be smuggled by air through military airports, and by sea through Syrian ports, for shipments of ballistic missile engines."