Israel strikes Syrian military site; Syria threatens 'dangerous repercussions' - News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

by News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Former Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin says strike was not routine, targeted facility manufacturing chemical weapons

Syrian weapons manufacturing base reportedly targeted by Israel | Photo credit: Google

Israeli warplanes hit a Syrian military facility in Hama province early Thursday from Lebanese airspace, killing two people and causing material damage, the Syrian army general command said in a statement.

The army statement said the strike took place near the town of Masyaf, about 25 miles north of the Lebanon border, and warned against the "dangerous repercussions of this aggressive action to the security and stability of the region."

"Israeli warplanes at 2:42 a.m. today fired a number of missiles from Lebanese air space, targeting one of our military positions near Masyaf, which led to material damage and the deaths of two members of the site," the army statement said. 

According to war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the strike hit a facility belonging to the Scientific Studies and Research Center, the agency the U.S. describes as Syria's chemical weapons manufacturer.

The Observatory also said that a military storage camp next to the center was used to store ground-to-ground rockets and that personnel from Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah had been seen there more than once.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Observatory, said that "many explosions were heard in the area after the air raid," adding that some of the blasts may have been secondary explosions from a missile storage facility being hit. He said that two people had been killed and five had been wounded in the strikes. 

An Israeli army spokeswoman earlier declined to discuss reports of a strike in Syria, saying the army does not comment on operational matters.

In the past, Israeli officials have admitted that Israel has attacked weapons shipments bound for Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group, an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, without specifying which ones.

Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, tweeted that the reported attack was not routine, and that it had targeted a Syrian military scientific center. 

"The facility at Masyaf also produces chemical weapons and barrel bombs that have killed thousands of Syrian civilians," Yadlin said in the tweet.

The strike sent a message that Israel would not let Syria produce strategic weapons, would enforce its own red lines, and would not be hampered by Russian air defense systems in Syria, he added.

There was no independent confirmation that this was the target but the United Nations has said in the past that the Syrian government has carried out chemical weapons attacks, which Damascus denies.

Israeli officials have also previously said that Israel and Russia, another Assad ally, maintain regular contact to coordinate military action in Syria.

Jets flying over Lebanon overnight broke the sound barrier and Lebanese media reported that some Israeli jets had breached Lebanese airspace.

News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=45191

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