Israeli rockets ‘hit Syrian chemical weapons factory’

Israel has carried out an air strike on a Syrian military facility that Western powers suspect is used to manufacture chemical weapons.

Israel – as is its custom – has not commented on the strike in the early hours today, at Masyaf, near the city of Hama. The Syrian army released a statement saying two soldiers had been killed when several missiles fired from within Lebanese air space hit the facility, which it described as a military base.

The statement warned of the “dangerous repercussions of this aggressive action to the security and stability of the region”. According to Al Jazeera, local media in Lebanon reported sightings of Israeli jets breaching Lebanese air space at the time of the attack.

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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in the UK, said the rockets had hit a military camp used to store missiles and an adjacent Scientific Studies and Research Centre facility.

Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad is meant to have destroyed all chemical weapons under a deal agreed with the international community in 2013.

However, according to a UN report published yesterday, at least 20 suspected chemical attacks have been carried out by his forces since then. The report said the Syrian Air Force had used the nerve agent Sarin in one attack, on the rebel town of Khan Sheikhoun in April.

That attack prompted US President Donald Trump to order cruise missile strikes on a Syrian air base.

The BBC’s Jonathan Marcus says today’s air strike bears a clear message from Israel: it will not tolerate the alleged military presence of Iran and Hezbollah in Syria. Israel claims that Iran is building missiles in Syria and Lebanon for the Islamist militant group.

The Times of Israel quotes former Israeli intelligence chief Amos Yadlin as saying that Israel was also showing the world it would enforce its “red lines” despite other countries “ignoring them,” and even though “the presence of Russian air defence does not prevent air strikes attributed to Israel”.