BICOM

A weapons storage facility containing 200 surface-to-surface missiles was reportedly destroyed in Sunday’s airstrike in Syria.

According to Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar, the facility stored missiles used by both the Syrian army and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack targeted a Syrian army base near the city of Salhab, which is widely known as a recruitment centre for Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias who fight alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

The New York Times reported at least 16 people were killed in the strike, many of them Iranians, although Iran subsequently denied any of its bases in Syria were attacked or that any of its soldiers had been killed.

Writing in Haaretz, defence analyst Amos Harel suggested that the strike on the missile cache “could be an attempt to thwart Iranian revenge after Israeli bombing” in Syria.

Earlier this week, new US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he was “deeply concerned about Iran’s dangerous escalation of threats to Israel and the region,” adding that “the United States is with Israel in this fight”.

Speaking at the annual Jerusalem Post Conference on Sunday, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel will prevent Iran from using Syrian territory as a base to attack Israel and “will maintain freedom of operation in all of Syria”. Although Israel has been accused of carrying out the attack the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have not commented.