The United States gave the nod for Israel to conduct a commando operation on an underground Iranian missile production facility in Syria in September, a new report claimed on Sunday. Two locations were targeted by Tel Aviv's commando squad that were reportedly run by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRG) in Syria.
It was the Scientific Studies and Research Center owned by the now-fallen Bashar regime's defense industry and an underground missile production facility directly overseen by the IRG were the two locations targeted by the Israeli units, KAN News said in an exclusive report. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) decided to act after intel suggested that the Islamic Republic recently transferred components needed for the manufacture of a precision missile project into the facility in Maysaf Syria. These weapons, once ready, were meant to replenish the Hezbollah arsenals in Lebanon amidst the ongoing fighting, Israel found out.
Soon, an operation plan was finalised and the United States was notified of their decision to do something about the "growing threat in Maysaf," the KAN News report said. The city of Masyaf is part of the Hama Governorate in northwestern Syria. However, it was not immediately known whether human lives were lost on either side as a consequence of Israeli commandos storming the facilities.
Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike in the outskirts of Damascus on Sunday killed 11 people, according to a war monitor, as Israel continues to target Syrian weapons and military infrastructure even after the ouster of former President Bashar Assad.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrike targeted a weapons depot that belonged to Assad's forces near the industrial town of Adra, northeast of the capital. The observatory said at least 11 people, mostly civilians, were killed.
Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV also reported the airstrike but put the death toll at six. The Israeli military did not comment on the airstrike Sunday.
Israel, which has launched hundreds of airstrikes over Syria since the country's uprising turned civil war broke out in 2011, rarely acknowledges them. It says its targets are Iran-backed groups that backed Assad. Israel also wants to remove a threat posed by weapons in Syria, which is now governed by Islamists.
Syrian insurgents who ousted Assad in a lightning offensive in early December have demanded that Israel cease its airstrikes.
