New details have emerged about how Israeli special forces carried out a commando raid in Syria on Sunday that destroyed a Hezbollah missile production facility , according American and Western officials.
The secret facility in northwestern Syria was hit with airstrikes and stormed by ground forces who rappelled from helicopters to seize evidence in a predawn raid, the officials said.
Syria’s state news agency, SANA, reported on Monday that 18 people were killed and 37 more were injured in the attack, making it one of the most deadly the country has seen in months.
Here is what to know about the attack, Israel’s latest long-range strike in its multiple conflicts against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and other militant groups in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as well as Iranian and Syrian targets. The officials spoke to The New York Times on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.
The raid began with airstrikes, then commandos moved in
Israel hit the sprawling facility with airstrikes late Sunday and early Monday, Western officials said, before dropping in commandos to penetrate the facility’s reinforced inner rooms, which were buried deep underground in a mountainside and could not be reached with airstrikes alone.
The decision to involve troops on the ground who were armed with demolition charges was made to ensure the facility was destroyed entirely, the officials said. Israel had struck the facility repeatedly in the past, and in 2018 assassinated a Syrian rocket scientist who worked at the center developing precision-guided munitions.
Israel has declined to comment on the recent raid, but American and other Western officials said there were no Israeli casualties.
Before the strike, a U.S. official said, Israel notified Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, the head of U.S. Central Command, and other senior American officials. On Sunday, General Kurilla traveled to the underground war room of the Israeli military’s Northern Command and was informed of the military’s operational plans for Lebanon, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Charles Lister, the director of the Middle East Institute’s Syria and counterterrorism programs, published an analysis on Thursday that said an initial round of Israeli airstrikes likely destroyed at least four Syrian military positions, including an air-defense site, and a second round of strikes hit a building in the complex connected to underground tunnels.
Next, he said, Israeli helicopters entered Syrian airspace and several dozen commandos were dropped on the center’s outskirts, and Israeli drones attacked Syrian troops who rushed to the scene.
The target was a hub for making missiles
The facility, called the Scientific Studies and Research Center, was used to make precision-guided missiles for Hezbollah, officials said.
Hezbollah began firing missiles in solidarity with Hamas after the Hamas-led attack on Israel last October. Israel has for months struck at Hezbollah targets in response.
The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a group based in Britain that tracks conflicts in Syria, said the facility developed short- and medium-range precision missiles, and some analysts said the weapons could help Hezbollah better strike targets in northern Israel. Before the start of Syria’s civil war in 2011, the center, located about 25 miles from the Mediterranean, near the city of Masyaf, developed chemical weapons.
The area has remained a hub of activity for Syria’s military. Mr. Lister said facilities in Masyaf and the nearby town of Mahruseh have been important to Syria’s development of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, barrel bombs and aerosol bombs, which are made with explosive mixtures typically used to destroy buildings and tunnels.
A senior Western intelligence official who reviewed preliminary assessments of the attack said the facility will likely be “inoperable” for a long time.
Iran has wielded influence at the center
Independent experts, Israeli officials and the U.S. government have described the center as being aided by Iran, an ally of Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas and a longtime adversary of Israel.
A former senior Israeli official who still advises the government said that Gen. Qassim Suleimani, who led Iran’s foreign operations before the United States killed him in Iraq in 2020, had urged President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to let Iranian scientists restore the weapons lab, which had become a missile and munitions manufacturing center for Hezbollah.
Israeli officials believe Hezbollah’s leaders wanted the center in Syria because they thought Israel was less likely to strike Masyaf than places in Lebanon.
“This was a serious undertaking,” said Ralph Goff, a former senior C.I.A. official who served in the Middle East. “Putting boots on the ground was a signal to Hamas and Iran that, even heavily engaged in Gaza and with Hezbollah in the north, Israel can still plan, launch and recover a complex special operations mission that not only destroys an enemy objective, but seizes high value intelligence for follow-on actions.”
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