BICOM

Syrian and Israeli media have reported that Israel bombed a Syrian chemical weapons facility associated with April’s chemical weapon attack in Khan Sheikhun that killed more than 80 people.

Four Israeli aircraft were alleged to have taken part in the air raid overnight on the Scientific Studies and Research Centre (CERS), a facility that Western officials have long associated with the production of chemical weapons. Syrian state media reported that in the early hours of Thursday morning, Israeli aircraft launched missiles at the facility, killing two people, while remaining in Lebanese airspace.

Lebanese media also claim that Israeli aircraft attacked a Hezbollah convoy last night in the northern Bekaa Valley.

The claims have not been confirmed by Israel but in a rare public statement in August, outgoing Air Force chief Amir Eshel said Israel had hit Syrian and Hezbollah arms convoys nearly 100 times over the last five years in order to prevent the transfer of sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah.

Gadi Shamni, a former military secretary to Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert, said that whoever carried out yesterday’s strike most likely was seeking to undermine the capacity of Iran and Hezbollah in Syria and Lebanon.

Speaking on Army Radio, former head of Military Intelligence Amos Yadlin said that yesterday’s target was sophisticated precise weapons that constitute a major threat against Israel. He also pointed out that it was noteworthy that the Russian air defence systems in Syria did not prevent the attack.

Former head of the National Security Council Yaakov Amidror said the attack was not routine because it targeted a Syrian facility rather than arms convoys for Hezbollah.

Yesterday, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria said it had evidence that Syrian regime forces have “continued to deliberately target civilians, including through the use of chemical weapons against civilians in opposition-held areas,” such as the chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhun “killing over 80 people, most of whom were women and children”.

The attack in Khan Sheikhun resulted in the Trump administration launching 59 Tomahawk missiles at the Shayrat air base in Homs, western Syria, as well as sanctions on hundreds of CERS employees

The Commission also said that between March 2013 and March 2017 it “documented 25 incidents of chemical weapons use in the Syrian Arab Republic, of which 20 were perpetrated by government forces and used primarily against civilians”.