JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s navy stated on Thursday its particular forces raided an underground missile manufacturing web site in Syria in September that it stated was primed to supply a whole lot of precision missiles to be used in opposition to Israel by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
The advanced close to Masyaf, in Hama province near the Mediterranean coast, was “the flagship of Iranian manufacturing efforts in our region,” Israeli navy spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani advised a briefing with reporters.
“This facility was designed to manufacture hundreds of strategic missiles per year from start to finish, for Hezbollah to use in their aerial attacks on Israel,” he stated.
He stated the plant, dug into the facet of a mountain, had been beneath statement by Israeli intelligence since development work started in 2017 and was on the purpose of with the ability to manufacture precision-guided long-range missiles, a few of them with a variety of as much as 300 km (190 miles).
“This ability was becoming active, so we’re talking about an immediate threat,” he stated.
Particulars of the Sept. 8 raid have been reported within the Israeli media in latest days however Shoshani stated this was the primary affirmation by the navy, which normally doesn’t touch upon particular forces operations of this sort.
On the time, Syrian state media stated a minimum of 16 folks had been killed in Israeli airstrikes within the west of the nation.
Shoshani stated the hours-long nighttime raid was “one of the more complex operations the IDF has done in recent years”. Accompanied by airstrikes, it concerned dozens of plane and round 100 helicopter-borne troops, who positioned weapons and seized paperwork, he stated.
“At the end of the raid, the troops dismantled the facility, including the machines and the manufacturing equipment themselves,” he stated, including that dismantling the plant was “key to ensure the safety of Israel”.
Israeli officers have accused the previous Syrian authorities of President Bahar al-Assad of serving to the Lebanese-based Hezbollah motion obtain arms from Iran and say they’re decided to cease the stream of weapons into Lebanon.
As Assad’s authorities crumbled in the direction of the top of final yr, Israel launched a collection of strikes in opposition to Syrian navy infrastructure and weapons manufacturing websites to make sure they didn’t fall into the fingers of its enemies.
