Reports: Israeli troops raided IRGC weapons facility in Syria, took equipment, documents
During major attack by jets earlier this week, IDF commandos said to have rappelled from helicopters to capture Iranians and remove materials before destroying site
Israeli special forces carried out a raid on an Iranian weapons facility in the Masyaf area in Syria earlier this week, according to a number of unconfirmed reports on Wednesday widely reported by Hebrew media.
A series of previously reported alleged Israeli strikes hit military sites in central Syria late Sunday, killing at least 14 people, wounding 43, and sparking fires. Local Syrian media reported at the time that the strikes hit a scientific research center in Masyaf, which has long been associated with the manufacture of chemical weapons and precision missiles by the Syrian regime and Iranian forces.
However, the fresh reports were the first to claim that Israeli troops operated on the ground during the action at Masyaf, which lies about 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of Israel, though only about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Syria’s western coastline.
The opposition Syria TV network, based in Turkey, reported that Israeli helicopters did not land on Syrian soil, but instead hovered as special forces rappelled down ropes. The report said there were violent clashes in which three Syrians were killed, and two to four Iranians were captured. The report did not give details as to what happened to the Iranians.
The outlet additionally said that a Russian communications center was among the sites targeted as part of the operation. Sources told the outlet that Syrian air defenses had been weakened by recent Israeli attacks, preventing them from foiling the Sunday assault, and that Syria has established a high-level commission of inquiry into the incident.
According to a report in the Axios news site — citing three sources familiar with the operation — the elite Shaldag unit of the Israeli Air Force carried out the raid. The news site also reported that Israel informed the US before the operation was slated to take place, and was not met with any resistance from the White House.
Separately, Middle East researcher Eva J. Koulouriotis said she was told by a “security source” that the IDF operation had targeted an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) facility for the development of ballistic missiles and drones that also provided logistical support to Hezbollah.
In a series of posts to X, Koulouriotis said roads surrounding the facility were targeted with airstrikes to stop Syrian troops from reaching the area, before the Israeli helicopters carrying special forces approached, with air support from combat helicopters and drones.
She said Israeli troops entered the compound, removed equipment and documents, and then laid explosives to destroy the facility.
Axios reported that IDF troops surprised the Syrian guards at the underground missile factory, killing several of them, and then used explosives to blow up the facility from the inside, under the cover of the above-ground airstrikes. According to the news site, Israeli security officials had been monitoring the factory for more than five years, and had been considering such an attack in recent years but held back until the right time.
The US-government-owned Al Hurra network reported that the raid targeted several sites in the Masyaf area and that their intensity and the death toll were “unusual.”
The Masyaf area, west of Hama, is thought to be used as a base for Iranian forces and pro-Iranian militias and has been repeatedly targeted in recent years in attacks widely attributed to Israel.
It contains the Scientific Studies and Research Center, known as CERS or SSRC, which according to Israel is used by Iranian forces to manufacture precision surface-to-surface missiles.
Western officials have long associated CERS with the manufacture of chemical arms. According to the United States, sarin gas has been developed at that center, a charge denied by the Syrian authorities.
There was no comment on the strike from Israel, which rarely acknowledges individual operations in Syria.
Israel has been carrying out airstrikes inside Syria since the outbreak of that country’s civil war in 2011, mainly targeting attempts to transfer weapons to the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah terror group or to keep Iranian fighters themselves from gaining a foothold near Israel’s border.
Since Hamas’s brutal October 7 massacre, which saw some 1,200 people killed in southern Israel and 251 kidnapped, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iranian-backed terror targets in Syria and has also struck Syrian army air defenses and some Syrian forces.
Hezbollah has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israel since it started launching attacks from Lebanon a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas’s terror onslaught, which sparked the war in Gaza.
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
