Israel launches airstrike on Syria targeting weapons, official says

 BEIRUT –  Israel launched its second airstrike in three days in the Syrian capital Sunday targeting a shipment of extremely accurate guided Iranian-made missiles intended for Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, according to an intelligence official in the Middle East.

The attack, which signaled a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's bloody civil war, was confirmed to The Associated Press

hours after Syria's state media reported that Israeli missiles struck a research center near Damascus, setting off explosions and causing casualties.

The confirmation came hours after Syria's state media reported that Israeli missiles struck a research center near the Syrian capital, setting off explosions and causing casualties.

The official told The Associated Press that, as with Friday's strike, the target was Fateh-110 missiles, which have very precise guidance systems with better aim than anything Hezbollah has in its arsenal.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to disclose information about a secret military operation to the media.

Israel has said it will not allow sophisticated weapons to flow from Syria to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad and a heavily armed foe of the Jewish state.

Hours after the reported airstrike on Sunday, Israel's military said it had deployed a rocket defense system to the north of the country as part of "ongoing situational assessments."

Iron Dome protects against short-range rockets. Hezbollah has thousands of such projectiles.

An airstrike in January also targeted weapons apparently bound for Hezbollah, Israeli and U.S. officials have said.

The Syrian state news agency SANA reported early Sunday that explosions went off at the Jamraya research center near Damascus, causing casualties. "Initial reports point to these explosions being a result of Israeli missiles that targeted the research center in Jamraya," SANA said.

The news agency said the strikes were a response to military gains Bashar al-Assad's forces against rebels, according to a Reuters report.

"The new Israeli attack is an attempt to raise the morale of the terrorist groups which have been reeling from strikes by our noble army," the state news agency was quoted as saying.

The U.S. State Department and Pentagon had no immediate comment on the airstrike and the Israeli Embassy in Washington declined a request for comment from Reuters.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman condemned the airstrike but gave no other hints of a possible stronger response from Tehran or its allies.

Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted Sunday by the semiofficial Fars news agency as denouncing the attack on the missiles. It's the first Iranian comments since Israel launched a first round of airstrikes on Friday.

Mehmanparast urged countries in the region to remain united against Israel, but gives no other suggestions of possible further action in response.

A Syrian activist group, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, also reported large explosions in the area of Jamraya, a military and scientific research facility northwest of Damascus, about 10 miles from the Lebanese border.

An amateur video said to be shot early Sunday in the Damascus area showed a huge ball of fire lighting up the night sky. The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other Associated Press reporting.

Israel's first airstrike in Syria, in January, also struck Jamraya.

At the time, a U.S. official said Israel targeted trucks next to the research center that carried SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles. The strikes hit both the trucks and the research facility, the official said. The Syrian military didn't confirm a hit on a weapons shipment at the time, saying only that Israeli warplanes bombed the research center.

Israeli lawmaker Shaul Mofaz, a former defense minister and a former chief of staff, declined to confirm the airstrike but said Israel is concerned about weapons falling into the hands of the Islamic militant group amid the chaos of Syria's civil war.

"We must remember that the Syrian system is falling apart and Iran and Hezbollah are involved up to their necks in Syria helping Bashar Assad," he told Israel Radio. "There are dangers of weapons trickling to the Hezbollah and chemical weapons trickling to irresponsible groups like Al Qaeda."

The Fateh-110, or Conqueror, is a short-range ballistic missile developed by Iran and first put into service in 2002. The Islamic Republic unveiled an upgraded version in 2012 that improved the weapon's accuracy and increased its range to 185 miles.

Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi said at the time that the solid-fueled missile could strike with pin-point precision, making it the most accurate weapon of its kind in Iran's arsenal.

source:fox news