An airstrike attributed to Israel earlier this week caused major damage to a presumed missile workshop outside Aleppo in northern Syria, according to satellite images released Thursday by an Israeli intelligence firm.
Late Monday night, the Israeli military conducted two rounds of airstrikes on Iran-linked targets in Syria, including one against a weapons factory in al-Safira outside Aleppo and a second against militia bases in Deir Ezzor in the east of the country, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.
Those attacks appeared to be the sixth and seventh strikes attributed to Israel against Iran-linked forces in Syria in the past two weeks. There was no word on the raids by the Israel Defense Forces, which rarely comments on individual cross-border attacks, though Defense Minister Naftali Bennett appeared to confirm Israel’s role in the strikes, repeatedly saying in the days preceding and following them that Israel was working to expel Iran from Syria.
On Thursday evening, the satellite imagery analysis firm ImageSat International released photographs of the weapons factory that was struck in the raids, showing significant damage to one of the structures.
“The workshop probably had a critical role in the missile production and assembly process, and possibly included unique machinery. Such an attack can stop the production process at this site,” the firm wrote in its assessment.
An explosion is seen following an alleged Israeli attack on a Hezbollah arms cache near Homs in central Syria on May 1, 2020. (Screen capture: Twitter)
In recent years, Jerusalem has accused Iran of helping the Hezbollah terror group develop advanced precision-guided missiles. Israel has vowed to prevent Hezbollah from obtaining such munitions, threatening military action in order to do so.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the airstrike on the al-Safira facility caused massive secondary explosions. READ MORE