New Details on Israel's 'Unusual' Operation Against 'Iranian Military Factory' in Syria

A few days after an unprecedented operation attributed to Israel at one of Syria's military complexes, while Israel continues its complete silence on the matter, American officials have confirmed the accuracy of these reports. According to the American newspaper 'Wall Street Journal', an 'unusual' operation was conducted by Israel in Syria, which, according to a member of an American think tank in Washington, is of the type that Israel should implement if it acts against similar military facilities in Iran. The name of the Israeli army's commando unit 'Shaldag' has been mentioned in connection with the operation carried out at the Syrian complex in Masyaf; a unit that has a 48-year history and has had little information published about it in global media. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the number of casualties in the Israeli attack, which took place from Sunday night, September 9, to Monday morning, September 10, in Masyaf in western Syria, to be up to 25 people, although most Western sources reported 16 fatalities in this operation. 'Israeli officials' told the Wall Street Journal that 'Israeli special forces targeted an Iranian missile factory in their rare raid in Syria.' For more than a decade, Israel has been conducting airstrikes in Syria, claiming to prevent the military establishment of Iran in this country bordering Israel, while also trying to stop the transfer of Iranian missiles and technology from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon. However, according to the Wall Street Journal, last week's Israeli plan, apart from repeating airstrikes, included the direct presence of Israeli forces in Syria, which is considered a broad and ambitious operation in this regard. The New York Times also reported on September 10, citing American sources, that Israeli forces who landed from helicopters in Masyaf collected documents and materials from the Syrian missile manufacturing site and took them with them. The New York Times stated that due to the complexity of the operation and the need to obtain precise information from within this secret site, Israel decided to use ground forces, and all commandos returned safely to Israel at the end of the operation. Media opposing Bashar al-Assad's government and some news sources close to Saudi Arabia reported that the Israeli Air Force's heavy bombardment of roads and areas near and far from the Masyaf complex aimed to prevent Syrian military forces from accessing the site so that Israeli commandos could land from helicopters, inspect the targeted factory in Masyaf, and collect the necessary documents and materials. Claims from some regional media regarding the possible abduction of two Syrian scientists or two to four Iranian military personnel by Israeli commandos and their transfer to Israel were not reflected in major Western media and were ignored. Barak Ravid, an Israeli reporter for the Israeli site 'Walla News' and the American site 'Axios', wrote that Israeli commandos, during their helicopter operation in the 'Iranian missile factory' underground, left the area with the necessary documents. According to Ravid, this part of Masyaf is protected from airstrikes, and the commandos of the 'Shaldag unit' detonated it with a bomb after their 'unusual' and 'extremely dangerous' operation. This reporter noted that Israel had monitored this factory for over five years, and two previous plans to conduct operations there had been canceled due to the high risk involved. However, executing the plan last Sunday dealt a 'significant blow' to Iran and Hezbollah's behind-the-scenes efforts to produce precision medium-range missiles in Syria that Hezbollah could use against Israel. Former Israeli officials also told Israeli media that Israel's intelligence community had been tracking Iranian and Hezbollah missile activities at the Masyaf factory in the heart of the mountain under a covert plan called 'Deep Layer' for over five years and had obtained precise specifications of the location. In videos that some local residents in Syria published on social media from the night of the incident, the sound of helicopters could also be heard. This event has never been recorded before. The BBC also reported that the bodies of the victims and the wounded from this operation, after being transferred to hospitals in Syria, showed signs of close-range gunfire, raising initial doubts about the presence of Israeli forces at the site. 'The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied the existence of an Iranian military site in Syria shortly after the initial reports were published, also rejecting the notion that Iranian personnel were present at the site. The Iranian embassy in Damascus also tweeted on September 13, denying regional news sources' reports about the abduction of Iranian citizens by Israeli commandos. Andrew Tabler, former head of the Syria desk at the White House National Security Council and an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy specializing in Syria and Lebanon, told the Wall Street Journal that this 'spectacular and unusual attack' indicates that Assad and his government are still considered part of the 'resistance axis.' Charles Lister, from the aforementioned think tank in Washington, also stated that Israel's attack on this factory deep in Syria, where missiles and rockets are produced under the supervision of the Revolutionary Guards, is of the same type of operation needed by Israel if it were to undertake an attack against similar military facilities in Iran. After Barak Ravid wrote that the Shaldag unit of the Israeli army was responsible for the operation in Syria, some senior former military commanders of the Israeli army shared details about this unit with their media. This unit, also known as Army 5101, is considered the seventh wing of the Israeli Air Force, established in 1976 as a lesson learned from the 'Yom Kippur War' three years prior, following the surprise attack by the Syrian and Egyptian armies on Israel. Its forces are dispatched for sensitive commando missions from their base in Palmachim, and 'the unit's special insignia is to demonstrate landing on the enemy like a salmon.' Shaldag, inspired by the British Air Force's special service, is a sister unit to the elite commando force 'Sayeret Matkal'; a force where individuals like Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu spent a significant part of their military careers. Only the current commander of Shaldag is referred to in Israeli media by the small letter of his name, 'B', and it has been reported that the operations of this force have significantly expanded during the Gaza war. However, the operation attributed to this unit in Masyaf, Syria, appears to be one of the most unusual missions in its 48-year existence.