HAMA, Syria (September 5, 2017) – Two Syrian soldiers were killed in an attack by Israeli fighter jets on a military base. It’s unclear what kind of weapons were supposed to be destroyed.
Israeli fighter planes have reportedly attacked a military facility in Syria last night. The Syrian army announced that two soldiers had been killed during the bombing of the base in the Syrian province of Hama. The attack near the town of Masjaf was carried out from Lebanese airspace. The Syrian army warned of the consequences of this “aggression”.
The Syrian Human Rights Observatory stated that the attack was aimed at a scientific research facility and missile depot. There were also fighters from foreign militias in that base. The Israeli news site ynet reported that a transport convoy for the shiite militia Hezbollah had been attacked. An Israeli military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv refused to comment on the reports.
According to a former Israeli military intelligence chief the attack was aimed at a chemical weapons factory. The attack was directed at a factory that “produced chemical weapons and barrel bombs that killed thousands of Syrian civilians”, Amos Jadlin wrote on Twitter.
There was no official confirmation from Syria that a chemical weapons factory had been hit. Israel also refused to make any official comments on such reports. Jadlin wrote that this was not an ordinary attack. The goal is a military research facility in which, among other things, precision-guided missiles are manufactured “which will play an important role in the next war”.
Israel largely refrains from the conflict in the neighbouring country. The commander of the Israeli Air Force however said that over the past five years Israel had attacked up to 100 arms shipments to the Hezbollah. The Hezbollah, financed by Shiite Iran, supports the government’s troops during the Syrian civil war.
