Israeli jets 'hit Syrian chemical site'
Syria says Israeli jets have hit a military base in the west of the country, amid reports of a strike on a chemical weapons factory.
An army statement said rockets fired from Lebanese airspace targeted the site near Masyaf, killing two soldiers.
Unconfirmed Arab media reports say a chemical weapons production facility was hit in the attack.
Israel, which has carried out clandestine attacks on weapons sites in Syria before, has not commented.
The incident comes a day after UN investigators said they had concluded that the Syrian government was behind a deadly chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held town in April.
At least 83 people died in the attack on Khan Sheikhoun, the UN says. Damascus has always denied using chemical weapons.
Western intelligence reports say Syria is continuing to produce chemical weapons, including at Masayaf, in violation of a 2013 deal to eliminate them.
Israel has sporadically carried out air strikes on sites in Syria in recent years.
It recently accused Syria of allowing its arch-enemy Iran to build missile factories there and says it aims to thwart the transfer of advanced weaponry from Syria to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
A CLEAR WARNING!
By Jonathan Marcus, Defence & Diplomatic Correspondent, BBC News
Israel has been watching events in Syria with alarm: the rising power of Iran and its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah - two of the main props of the Syrian regime - together with the reported periodic use of chemical weapons against civilians.
So this latest alleged attack sends a clear warning, not just to Hezbollah and Damascus but also to Russia - the other crucial supporter of the Syrian government.
Israel has been waging a long-running air campaign to prevent sophisticated weaponry being transferred to Hezbollah.
It is now talking about this campaign more openly; the former Israeli Air Force chief recently noting that it had carried out almost 100 air strikes over the past five years.
And with Israeli claims that Iran is building missile production facilities in Lebanon and Syria for Hezbollah, the message could not be clearer.
A former head of Israeli military intelligence, Amos Yadlin, tweeted that Thursday's strike on Masyaf was "not routine" and had targeted a "Syrian military-scientific centre for the development and manufacture of, among other things, precision missiles".
"The factory that was targeted in Masyaf produces the chemical weapons and barrel bombs that have killed thousands of Syrian civilians," he added.
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