According to the IAF, Iran’s construction of the Deep Layer facility began in late 2017.
NDTV | Published January 3, 2025
The mission, codenamed “Operation Many Ways,” was carried out on September 8 in 2024
New Delhi:
The Israeli Air Force (IAF) on Thursday declassified details of a high-stakes operation in which 120 Israeli commandos raided and destroyed an alleged underground Iran-funded missile manufacturing facility in Syria. The mission, codenamed “Operation Many Ways,” was carried out on September 8 in 2024.
The facility, known as “Deep Layer,” was allegedly located near the Masyaf area in western Syria, a region considered a stronghold of Syrian air defences. Israeli officials claimed that the site, a flagship project of Iran’s missile production program, was intended to supply precision missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon and to the Assad regime in Syria. The operation was carried out without injuries to the Israeli forces, the officials claim.
The Facility
According to the IAF, Iran’s construction of the Deep Layer facility began in late 2017, following an earlier Israeli airstrike on an aboveground rocket engine manufacturing site at the Scientific Studies and Research Center (CERS) in Jamraya, southern Syria. This attack led Iran to shift its operations underground, aiming to safeguard its missile production capabilities from future airstrikes. By 2021, the underground facility, buried 70 to 130 metres into a mountain, had become operational, with missile production capabilities nearing full scale.
Photo Credit: Screengrab from video posted on X by @IDF
The horseshoe-shaped structure featured three primary entrances: one for raw materials, another for completed missiles, and a third for logistics and office access. Sixteen production rooms lined the facility, including mixers for rocket fuel, missile body construction areas, and paint rooms. The IDF estimated the facility’s annual output could have ranged between 100 and 300 missiles, capable of reaching targets up to 300 kilometres away.
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SOURCE: www.ndtv.com
RELATED: Israel confirms commandos raided Iran missile factory deep in Syria 4 months ago
In ‘Operation Deep Layer,’ IAF special forces rappeled from helicopters, killed guards at entrance to scientific center in Masyaf, raided underground site, set explosives, took documents
Syrians inspect the damage at the site of overnight Israeli strikes on the outskirts of Masyaf in Syria’s central Hama province on September 9, 2024. (LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
THE TIMES OF ISRAEL | Published January 2, 2025
Israel on Wednesday took responsibility for a commando raid against an Iranian missile manufacturing site deep in Syria in September, an operation already widely attributed to the Israel Defense Forces.
The revelation of the raid, dubbed internally by the military “Operation Deep Layer,” came weeks after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, which was closely aligned with Iran. Assad had allowed Iran to use Syria to manufacture and deliver weapons to the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.
Members of the Israeli Air Force’s elite Shaldag unit raided the Scientific Studies and Research Center, known as CERS or SSRC, in the Masyaf area on September 8, to demolish an underground facility used by Iranian forces to manufacture precision missiles for Hezbollah.
The site lies more than 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of Israel, though only about 45 kilometers (28 miles) from Syria’s western coastline.
The IDF had been monitoring the site for more than five years, targeting its facilities numerous times, although it identified that the airstrikes were not sufficient to target some of the underground infrastructure established by the Iranians at CERS.
During the September 8 raid, IAF commandos reportedly rappelled down from helicopters and raided CERS, killing the few guards standing at the entrance to the site, before heading deep underground to the missile manufacturing facility.
The troops laid explosives inside the underground facility, before removing intelligence materials and documents and escaping unscathed.
The forces detonated remotely the underground site, along with the equipment inside used by Iran to manufacture missiles for Hezbollah.
According to some Israeli defense officials, the soldiers were on the ground for just over an hour.
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SOURCE: www.thetimesofisrael.com
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