Click to see full-size image.
A soldier from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has left behind a smart phone with a special military system in southern Syria by mistake.
The phone was found by locals near Tell al-Mughar, a strategic hill located outside the buffer zone in the western Daraa countryside. Israeli troops advanced towards the hill and set up tents there on June 28, but the next day they left the area following a clash with gunmen in the nearby town of Aabdyn.
The state-run SANA news agency and other Syrian media outlets shared footage of the phone, a Samsung XCover Pro 6 rugged model, on June 29.
Click to see full-size image. (SANA)
The phone bears stickers identifying it as belonging to the Israeli army, including a serial number and the name of the Israeli defense contractor Asio Technologies.
In response to the footage, the IDF issued a brief statement on June 30 saying that “the incident is known and is under review.”
“The incident is being handled through the relevant channels,” the military added.
The phone was equipped with Asio Technologies’ flagship ORION system, known in the IDF as OLAR. Thousands of similar devices have been delivered to the military since 2018. The version based on the Samsung XCover Pro 6 was specifically delivered in 2022.
The ORION is a tactical mission enhancement system that integrates advanced capabilities such as terrain analysis, line of sight, and navigation calculations, as well as friendly and hostile combat positions, onto a layered map.
Using advanced software, electro-optics, and data fused from sensors and data from the IDF’s Intelligence Directorate, it delivers interactive and real-time battlefield pictures, allowing commanders to plan and execute missions in complicated environments.
The loss of the phone will not likely compromise the IDF’s communications. However, it could expose some methods and technologies.
There is also a strong possibility that the phone was actually left on purpose, either to mislead the Syrian side in some way, or even as a part of some complex cyberattack.
The IDF invaded the buffer zone adjacent to the occupied Golan Heights in the governorate of al-Qunitra right after the fall of the regime of former president, Bashar al-Assad, more than a year ago, and has since established a series of nine posts there.
Since then, Israeli troops have conducted operations in al-Qunitra, as well as in nearby Daraa and Rif Dimashq on a regular basis. These operations created some tensions with the locals, which escalated into clashes on more than one occasion in the past.
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for them war really is a computer game if they have a interface like in a game.