November 1, 2013 -- Updated 1716 GMT (0116 HKT)
Israeli warplanes struck a military base near the Syrian port city of
Latakia on Thursday, an Obama administration official told CNN. FULL STORY
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SYRIA'S OTHER CRISIS
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SENATOR: U.S. HAS NO STRATEGY
November 1, 2013 -- Updated 0243 GMT (1043 HKT)
Source: Israeli planes strike Syrian base
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: The Syrian military regains control of the town of al Safira
- Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman: "We don't refer to foreign reports"
- U.S. official: Targeted were missiles, equipment the Israelis felt might be given to Hezbollah
- Israel has long said it would target any transfer of weapons to Hezbollah
An explosion at a missile
storage site in the area was reported in the Middle Eastern press, but
an attack has not been confirmed by the Israeli government.
The target, according to
the Obama administration official, was missiles and related equipment
the Israelis felt might be transferred to the Lebanon-based militant
group Hezbollah. The official declined to be identified because of the
sensitive nature of the information.
There was some confusion
about the timing of the attack, with some reports saying it happened
Wednesday, and others saying Thursday.
When asked for comment, an Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman told CNN: "We don't refer to foreign reports."
Israel has been accused
several other times this year of launching airstrikes inside Syria,
including once in January. In the January incident, a U.S. official said
Israeli fighter jets bombed a Syrian convoy suspected of moving weapons
to Hezbollah.
Israel's military did not
comment on any of the allegations at the time, but has long said it
would target any transfer of weapons to Hezbollah or other groups
designated as terrorists, as well as any effort to smuggle Syrian
weapons into Lebanon that could threaten Israel.
Thursday's reports of a blast come amid a Syrian civil war in
which Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim militant group, has been helping
Syrian government forces. Syria's government is led by President Bashar
al-Assad, a member of the Shiite offshoot Alawite sect; the rebels and
other militants fighting al-Assad's forces and Hezbollah are largely
made up of Sunni Muslims.
The Syrian conflict began
in March 2011 after government forces cracked down on peaceful
protesters during the Arab Spring movement and is now a full-blown civil
war. The United Nations estimates that more than 100,000 people have
died in the conflict.
On Thursday, the Syrian
military took back control of al Safira, a town that is believed to
house a chemical weapons production facility. Rebels withdrew from the
strategic town, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
International inspectors
are trying to ensure that Syria eliminates its chemical weapons
stockpile by the middle of next year. Syria agreed to the program under
international pressure earlier this year.
One of the monitoring groups, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said Thursday
that Syria has destroyed all its declared chemical weapons mixing,
filling and production facilities, and all of the chemical weapons at
inspected sites have been placed under seal.
The watchdog body's announcement of the facilities' destruction meant that Syria met a key deadline in the elimination program.
The joint United
Nations-OPCW mission visited 21 out of 23 sites, an OPCW statement said,
and 39 of the 41 facilities at those sites. The remaining two sites
were too dangerous for the inspectors to go to, it said, but Syria had
declared those sites abandoned. The chemical weapons equipment there was
moved to other sites, which were inspected.
CNN's Samira Said contributed to this report.
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