The military warned it would “target them wherever they are found” if they did not depart within 24 hours.
By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
Several dozen officers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have left Beirut in the past two days amid concerns they could be targeted, two senior Israeli defense officials and a third source familiar with the situation told Axios.
The officers were largely affiliated with the IRGC’s Quds Force and had been serving in Lebanon as military advisers to Hezbollah.
According to Israeli officials, these personnel have held considerable influence over the group’s operational planning.
The departures followed an ultimatum issued Tuesday by the Israel Defense Forces to Iranian regime representatives still operating in Lebanon.
The military warned it would “target them wherever they are found” if they did not depart within 24 hours.
Israeli defense officials told Axios that since the warning was issued, dozens of IRGC personnel have left Lebanon. Some of those who departed had been working from the Iranian embassy in Beirut, officials said.
A limited number of Quds Force members have remained in the country in order to preserve coordination with Hezbollah.
“We expect the IRGC exodus from Lebanon to continue over the next several days,” an Israeli defense official said.
The movement of Iranian personnel comes as hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah intensify. Hezbollah joined the war on March 1, initially launching a limited wave of rockets and drones before expanding the scale of its attacks.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, Hezbollah has increasingly taken on the role of the primary force carrying out attacks on Israel.
“As a result of IDF and U.S. armed forces operations, ballistic missile launches from Iran toward Israel and other countries have been constantly decreasing,” IDF international spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told Axios. “Simultaneously, Hezbollah has expanded its firing of rockets and UAVs toward Israel, to a point where the amounts are much larger than those being fired from Iran.”
Israeli officials say Tehran’s role in directing Hezbollah’s military planning has grown over the past two years as Israel killed a number of the group’s most experienced commanders.
In Lebanon, the government signaled a new position toward the Iranian presence. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam ordered authorities Thursday to take “the necessary measures to prevent any military or security activity carried out by members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Lebanon, in preparation for their deportation,” according to Information Minister Paul Morcos.
The IRGC has maintained a presence in Lebanon since its initial deployment there in 1982.
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