Iranian and Syrian military officers as well as foreign missile experts were killed in the Israeli air strike on the Scientific Studies and Research Center in the Syrian town of Masyaf on April 13, Israeli media outlet Debka reports with reference to ‘Western intelligence sources’.
According to Debka, Belarusian and North Korean missile scientists who were employed in different departments of the large industrial complex outside Masyaf in western Syria are among the killed and injured.
The attack was ‘massive’; it caused serious damage to the departments working on the upgrade of Syrian and Hezbollah surface missiles, the production of solid fuel, the media outlet reports citing the above sources. The North Korean engineers were working on the production of solid fuel, while the Belarusians were in the pay of Syria’s Organization of Technological Industries, a front organization for skirting the UN-US embargo on hiring military experts for Syria’s military production and the sale of military hardware to the Assad regime.
Most of the Belarusians reportedly got their jobs at Masyaf through the mediation of the state-run Belvneshpromservice company which has a long history of cooperating with Damascus.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Image Sat International company (ISI) published the photos of facilities in Masyaf before and after the attack on April, 13. According to ISI, a facility that allegedly manufactured ground-to-surface missiles was seriously damaged. It is located close to other military facilities that may be linked to the Iranian missile project in Syria.
“The factory was built in the western compound of the base between 2014-2016 and was surrounded by a wall for separating it from the rest of the base. It is unclear which entity controls and owns the base and the separate compound – Syrian army, Iran or the militias. However, if the attacked factory is indeed controlled by Iran, it is probable that the eastern part of the base is controlled by them,” the ISI says.
Belsat.eu, following Debka, reform.by
