Israeli Raid on Iranian Weapons Facility in Syria: 'What You Destroyed Saved Many Civilian Lives'

Friday, 3 January 2025 | The Israel Defense Forces [IDF] on Thursday evening released bodycam footage of its September 8 special forces raid of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] arms facility used by Hezbollah in northwestern Syria.

“Tonight, we reveal a special operation that took place in the heart of Syria in early September, during which dozens of fighters raided an underground site for the production of Iranian precision missiles in Syria,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a statement. 

The IRGC built the underground missile factory with the aim of enabling its Hezbollah terrorist army “to produce a wide variety of hundreds of rockets and missiles per year,” the Israeli military spokesman said.

“The site was also meant to become a central infrastructure for producing rocket engines in the northern front,” Hagari continued. “We prevented this.” 

On Wednesday, the IDF confirmed for the first time that its forces on September 8 had raided the Scientific Studies and Research Center, a military base that is believed to be responsible for research and development of nuclear, biological, chemical and missile technology and weapons.

The IDF revealed that the operation, which was carried out by the Israeli Air Force’s [IAF] elite Shaldag unit, destroyed a missile plant that was code-named “Deep Layer.” There were no casualties among Israeli soldiers.

The IDF revealed on Thursday night that more than 100 Shaldag troops landed by helicopters some 700 meters (0.4 mi.) from the site in the Masyaf area of northwestern Syria under the cover of fire support.

The IAF troops were said to have discovered critical equipment used to produce missiles, including a planetary mixer, numerous weapons and intelligence documents that were seized for further investigation.

“As a powerful explosion that felt like an earthquake destroyed the site, the fighters, with the backup of Unit 669 [the combat search and rescue extraction unit] and other IAF units, took the escape route towards aircraft that were waiting for them at the drop-off point,” the IDF stated.

The 300 kilograms [661.3 lb.] of bombs dropped by the IAF, along with the weight of the Iranian arms at the site, were said to have amounted to one ton.

IAF commander Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar told the Shaldag fighters upon their return from Syria that “what you destroyed there would have cost us the lives of many Israeli civilians,” according to the IDF statement.

“In the midst of this justified war, this [operation] was essential to the existence of the state,” Bar said. “We can be proud. We can tell future generations that we did a significant thing for Israel’s security.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the operation on Thursday as “one of the most important preventive operations that we have taken against the efforts of the Iranian axis to arm itself in order to attack us.”

The premier saluted “our heroic fighters for the daring and successful operation deep in Syria” and stated that the raid “attests to our boldness and determination to take action everywhere to defend ourselves.”