January 17, 2025
Israel has revealed it sent 120 troops deep into Syria months before the Assad regime fell, launching a nighttime mission to target a massive underground factory, which it said was funded by Iran to build missiles for Hezbollah.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) published new information about its September 8, 2024, raid near Masyaf not far from Lebanon in western Syria. IDF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said January 2 that Israel had been monitoring the site’s construction for years and acted when it posed an “imminent and active threat.”
He said, “This facility was the flagship of the Iranian manufacturing efforts in our region. They were planning on assembling and manufacturing different types of precision guided, long-range missiles some of them [with a range] up to 300 kilometers. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor had previously reported that 27 people were killed in the raid.
The IDF assessed that it killed some 30 guards and Syrian soldiers during the entire operation. Syrian media at the time reported 14 dead and 43 wounded. The IDF said none of the Israeli troops was killed or injured. The Observatory said the facility was created and supervised by Iran’s Pasdaran. Lt. Col. Shoshani said Israeli intelligence learned construction of the factory started in late 2017, and was finished four years later, with Iranian missile manufacturing machinery installed after that.
He said a ground operation was necessary given its depth underground, meaning air strikes would not be effective. Commandos sent into the site were flown in on helicopters, with Israeli fighter jets and drones clearing the way for the operation.
The facility, codenamed by the military as “Deep Layer,” was dug into a mountain at the Scientific Studies and Research Center, known as CERS or SSRC, west of Hama. The IDF said the site was Iran’s “flagship project” in its effort to arm Hezbollah.
The military said the raid was carried out successfully by the IAF’s elite Shaldag commando unit, along with the search and rescue Unit 669, to provide emergency medical care, if needed. The site that Iran constructed was 70-130 meters (230- 430 feet) underground and thus virtually impossible to destroy from the air. The facility was built in the shape of a horseshoe, with one entrance on the side of the mountain for raw materials to enter and an exit nearby for the completed missiles to leave.
A third entrance adjacent to those two was used for logistics and to reach offices inside the facility. Along the horseshoe were at least 16 rooms housing the production line for the missiles. The facility was not yet completely active when Israel launched its operation against it, but according to the military, it was at the final stages of being declared operational by Iran.
At least two missiles had been successfully manufactured as part of testing, and rocket engines were already being mass produced. The IDF has assessed that the facility would have been used to produce between 100 and 300 missiles a year, including long range missiles with ranges of up to 300 kilometers, precision guided missiles with ranges of up to 130 kilometers, and shortrange rockets with ranges of 40- 70 kilometers.
According to the IDF’s assessments, the facility, located relatively close to the border with Lebanon, was meant to replace Iran’s method of trucking missiles and parts from its own territory to Lebanon via Syria. Such convoys were repeatedly struck by the Israelis over the years.
The distance the weapons would need to travel from the new facility to reach Hezbollah would be far shorter. With the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad now overthrown, Iran can no longer truck or fly weapons to Syria and with the factory destroyed it cannot build them locally.
On the evening of September 8, 100 members of Shaldag and another 20 members of Unit 669 boarded four CH-53 helicopters and set off from an airbase in Israel for Syria. Joining them were another two attack helicopters to provide close air support, 21 fighter jets, five drones and 14 spy planes and other aircraft.
Another 30 aircraft waited in Israel on standby in case something did not go to plan. The six helicopters flew over the Mediterranean Sea far off the coast of Lebanon, before crossing into Syria above its own coastline.
The choppers flew unusually low in order to evade Syrian radars and air defense systems. It took just 18 minutes for the helicopters to fly from the coast to the facility, during which the aircraft were not detected. At the same time, Israeli fighter jets and drones along with Navy missile boats launched a major wave of strikes targeting both the CERS facility and several other sites in Syria.
The strikes were intended both to mask the approach of the helicopters and to trick the Syrian military into believing this was a regular Israeli attack, hundreds of which had been carried out over the years, including at Masyaf. The first of the CH-53s landed close to the entrance, dropping off several Shaldag commandos, while another two choppers simultaneously landed at another position in the area overlooking the science center.
The fourth helicopter waited behind for several minutes before landing where the first one had, dropping off additional troops. The four helicopters then flew away to other positions in the area, where they landed and waited for the commandos to carry out their mission. The 20 Unit 669 members, still on board the choppers, were to spring into action if any of the commandos were wounded.
The plan was to treat any wounded soldiers, but not to leave until the end of the mission. Therefore, Unit 669 brought along additional medical equipment to act as a makeshift hospital in the event of a major injury. At the facility, a first team of commandos began to secure the area while a second team advanced toward the entrance, killing two guards.
The IDF said no one was inside when the raid was carried out. Another team of commandos carrying explosives arrived at the entrances. Some 50 commandos then moved along the facility’s production line, attaching bombs to the equipment. The other 50 waited outside to face any Syrian troops if they had appeared.
At the same time, fighter jets continued to pound the surrounding region to prevent dozens of people identified on the ground apparently Syrian soldiers from approaching. In all, 49 munitions were used by Israeli aircraft during the raid.
After the commandos had rigged up all the explosives around 300 kilograms’ (660 pounds’) worth to a remote detonator planted at the entrance to the site, all 100 evacuated to the initial landing site. The helicopters flew in from their waiting positions, picking up the soldiers after two and a half hours on the ground.
As they boarded, Shaldag’s chief explosives specialist set off the bombs.
