New Iranian and Hizballah bases south of Damascus. Iran’s 3 spy agencies split by quarrel

Two new military centers are under construction south of Damascus by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and Hizballah, DEBKAfile’s military sources report. They are designed to consolidate their access to Lebanon and the Golan. Satellite and Western intelligence have recorded the new projects. Acting for Iran, the Imam Hussein Brigades, an Iraqi militia assigned by the IRGC to the Damascus region, began in mid-June building a string of bases in the Khan al-Shih district. Twenty kilometers away, Hizballah has been constructing on the large tract of land it occupies another network of military facilities south of the Syrian air force’s Mezzeh Military Airport.

All this construction work is designed to bring Iran’;s military and its proxies closer to the Israeli border, the Golan and Lebanon.
The Iraqi militia is focusing its effort on new military staff headquarters and hangars for storing weapons and ammo not far from its own bases at Sayyidah Zaynab, where Iran has established its main command center in Syria.

Permission for these expanded Iranian military projects in his country goes sharply against pledges Syrian President Bashar Assad offered Arab leaders in return for his first invitation to the Arab League summit since 2011.

In Tehran itself, DEBKAfile’ sources also reveal Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei has failed in his efforts to bring peace among three quarreling intelligence arms. Confronted by Khamenei, all three refused to share input with their fellow agencies. Brig. Gen. Mohammad Kazemi, director of the IRGS’s spy agency, maintained that in his defense that Col, Ali Akbari, head of the National Council’s intelligence service, had been caught spying for the British and was executed for treason.
Iran’s intelligence operations are plagued by setbacks thanks to the bad blood among its services.