Israeli warplanes attack military base in Syria

Israeli fighter jets have attacked a military base near Latakia on the Syrian coast to thwart what Israel claimed was an attempt by the Assad regime to transfer missiles to the Jewish state’s arch-foe Hezbollah, a US official has told CNN.

The Israeli military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman declined to comment on the CNN report, which came after news spread on Syrian social media of an explosion at Snawbar-Jable in the countryside near Latakia. Israel has repeatedly vowed to prevent Syria from transferring ‘’game-changing’’ weapons to the Shia fundamentalist group, which is a close ally of Syria’s President Bashar Assad. Foreign reports have held Israel responsible for a series of strikes in Syrian territory towards that end, beginning in January.

Today, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said Syria had destroyed equipment critical for producing chemical weapons and poison-gas munitions. The announcement came one day ahead of the deadline set by the global watchdog, based in The Hague, for Damascus to destroy or “render inoperable” all chemical weapons production facilities and machinery for making poison gas and filling munitions.

AP