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IDF officer says Israel will hand ISIS intelligence to US-led coalition

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A senior IDF intelligence officer yesterday confirmed that Israel will help provide intelligence to the United States-led coalition against ISIS, if asked to do so.

Reuters reported last week that Israel is already supplying crucial satellite imagery and other intelligence to the US to bolster the effort to tackle ISIS. The unnamed IDF officer who briefed the media yesterday commented, “If Israel has intelligence on ISIS targets in Syria – and are asked to share it with the international coalition – I believe that we would cooperate.”

The officer said that although ISIS does not pose a threat to Israeli interests at this stage, he predicted that they “will likely try now to entrench and disappear ahead of the upcoming campaign against them.” However, he conceded that ISIS likely has sleeper cells in Lebanon, although far from the border with Israel.

He also outlined an assessment of ISIS’ strength and resources, saying that ISIS numbers some 30,000 members in Syria and Iraq. The intelligence analysis also points to ISIS control of 60 oil fields in Syria for which it earns millions of pounds each day, four power plants in Syria, and control of 45 percent of Syria’s gas reserves. The officer also described the infrastructure ISIS has in place, commenting “ISIS has already established an interior ministry, a finance ministry, nursing, welfare, schools, bakeries, and even police.” He warned that “They [ISIS] want to achieve a religious regime to exclude all that is modern and liberal.”

Meanwhile, for the second time this week, a mortar fired from Syrian territory landed yesterday on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights. No injuries or damage was reported. Earlier this month, an unnamed senior IDF officer told Haaretz that although there are no ISIS forces within 50 kilometres of the Israel-Syria border, “they might show up later on.” There are also fears that ISIS has ambitions to establish a presence in Jordan, another country bordering Israel.