It is reported that at least 14 people were killed and 43 people were injured in the air attack carried out by Israel on Syria on Sunday night. The attack hit various targets in Hama, Homs, Damascus and Tartus provinces, but the focus was on the CERS (Syrian Center for Scientific Research and Research) in Masyaf district.
According to the Alma Research and Education Center in Israel, CERS, which employs about 20,000 people, is actually the military industry of the Assad regime in Syria. It was founded in 1971 and was one of the leading such institutions in the Middle East until the civil war in Syria. According to German, since the civil war started, it has become a platform for cooperation between President Assad, Iran and Hezbollah.
Over the years, the center has been responsible for the development and production of advanced weapons such as the Fateh-110 short-range ballistic missile used by Hezbollah. “These are the basis of cooperation between Syria, Iran and Hezbollah to convert missiles into precision-guided weapons,” explains Alma. The institute also warns that the Syrian center is “responsible for the development and production of chemical, biological and even potential nuclear weapons.” Therefore, it is not surprising that since 2013 there have been attacks on CERS targets attributed to Israel.
In 2022, then-Defense Secretary Benny Gantz revealed more than a dozen CERS facilities responsible for producing weapons for Assad’s army in a speech at a New York conference. The center of activity highlighted in that speech was Masyaf, where the presence of pro-Iranian militias, the Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Iranian weapons experts expanded during the civil war. Referring to Qasem Soleimani, an officer of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who was killed by the United States in 2020, Gantz said, “According to Soleimani’s vision, Iran turned the facility in Masyaf into a facility for the production of medium and high-end weapons.” Long-range precision missiles for Hezbollah and pro-Iranian militias.
“CES is a scientific research center involved in various types of military and weapons R&D – rockets, missiles, UAVs, cruise missiles, everything related to space, inertial navigation, which is important for the Fateh-110,” – Dr Yehoshua National Security Studies Kaliski, senior researcher of the institute, told “Globus”.
“There’s scientific research out there that serves as a cloak for military-oriented research,” says Kalisky. “They have extensive collaborations with scientists from abroad, supposedly in scientific research, in plasma physics, for example, with scientists who seem innocent, but there are other things that can be learned. These are advanced research projects with the military in physics, chemistry and biology. It seems to me that Assad the chemical weapons produced by Hezbollah were created there.”
Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – published on September 10, 2024.
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