Israeli aircraft have carried out a
strike near the Syrian coastal city of
Latakia, a US official says.
The official said the strike targeted
Russian-made missiles intended for
the Lebanese militant group
Hezbollah.
Latakia is a stronghold of Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad, where his
Alawite community is concentrated.
This is believed to be sixth Israeli
attack in Syria this year. Israel does
not comment on specific operations.
Israeli officials have repeatedly said it
would act if it felt Syrian weapons,
conventional or chemical, were being
transferred to militant groups in the
region, especially Hezbollah.
Reports of the strike came as the
Organisation for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said all
Syria's declared equipment for making
chemical weapons had been
destroyed, one day before a deadline.
Action by the OPCW was agreed
following allegations, denied by the
Syrian government, that its forces had
used chemical weapons in civilian
areas - and after the US and France
threatened military intervention.
Delicate moment
A US official said the Israeli strike
took place overnight from Wednesday
into Thursday.
Reports circulated on Thursday of
explosions near Latakia, but the
cause was not clear.
"Several explosions were heard in an
air defence base in the Snubar Jableh
area," said the Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights, a UK-based activist
network.
Neither Israel nor Syria have
commented on the reports. Earlier
this year, Mr Assad had promised to
respond to any future strikes by
Israel.
One unnamed US official told the
Associated Press that the missiles
targeted by Israel were Russian-made
SA-125s.
The BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut says the
reports come at a delicate moment,
with the Russians - who apparently
made the weapons that Israel is said
to have targeted - working closely
with the US to get a peace
conference on Syria off the ground.
Russia has been a key backer of
President Assad's, continuing to
supply his government with weapons
during the conflict in Syria.
The UN Joint Special Representative
for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, has told
the BBC he believes progress was
"certainly being made" on
preparations for an international
peace conference in Switzerland -
widely referred to as Geneva 2.
But he said it was not certain if it was
enough for the conference to take
place, as planned, on 23 November.
He said he hoped to announce a date
soon.
Speaking in Damascus, at the end of
his first visit to the capital since
December, he said "people are
realising more and more there is no
military solution and don't see any
way of getting out of this horrible
situation except through Geneva".
'Constructive partner'
On Thursday, the OPCW said in a
statement that its teams had
inspected 21 of the 23 chemical
weapons sites in Syria.
It said two sites were too dangerous
to visit, but equipment from those
sites had already been moved to
places where it could be inspected.
Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal
Mekdad told the BBC that his
government was co-operating, and
was making a contribution to freeing
the Middle East of weapons of mass
destruction.
"I hope those who have always
thought of us negatively will change
their minds and understand that Syria
was, is, and will be always a
constructive partner," Mr Mekdad
said.
Syria's next deadline is mid-
November, by which time the OPCW
and the Syrians must agree a detailed
plan to destroy the country's
chemical weapons stockpile.
Syria has until mid-2014 to destroy
the chemical weapons themselves.
Syria's arsenal is believed to include
more than 1,000 tonnes of the nerve
gas sarin, the blister agent sulphur
mustard and other banned chemicals,
stored at dozens of sites.
The uprising against Mr Assad began
in 2011. More than 100,000 people
have been killed and more than two
million people have fled the country,
according to the UN.