QUOTE OF THE DAY

“We will do everything to prevent the existence of a Shiite corridor from Iran to Damascus.”

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s defense minister, after Israeli warplanes struck a Syrian government position in Syria, where Iran’s influence has grown

BEIRUT — Israeli warplanes struck a military position near the Mediterranean coast in western Syria on Thursday, killing two soldiers, the Syrian army said, in a government stronghold that is also heavily protected by the Russians and Iranians.

The airstrike targeted an installation near the town of Masyaf, in Hama province, described by some as a missile-producing factory. Iran’s growing influence in the wartorn country recently has drawn Israel’s ire.

Other reports suggested the site was tied to Syria’s chemical-weapons program.

In a statement, the Syrian army said the Israeli warplanes fired several missiles from Lebanese airspace and warned of the “dangerous repercussions of such hostile acts on the security and stability of the region.”

“We will do everything to prevent the existence of a Shiite corridor from Iran to Damascus,” said Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who declined to comment directly on the strike in an interview Thursday with Israel’s 100FM Radio. He said Israel isn’t “looking for adventures, and we don’t want to be dragged into this fight or another.”

“We are determined to prevent our enemies from harming or even creating the possibility of harming the security of Israeli citizens.”

Israel has carried out several airstrikes against suspected arms shipments it believed to be bound for Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, which is fighting alongside President Bashar Assad’s forces, over the course of Syria’s civil war, now in its seventh year.

Israel also has struck several Syrian military sites since the conflict began, mostly near the Israeli- occupied Golan Heights. Assad, not wanting to draw Israel into his country’s war, has never retaliated.

The airstrike comes during heightened tensions over Iran’s growing reach in Syria. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed recently that Iran is building sites in Syria and Lebanon for the manufacture of “precision-guided missiles” with the aim of deploying them against Israel.

Thursday’s air raid was seen as a message to both Russia and Iran that Israel can strike anywhere in Syria. It was also a rare instance of Israel striking a Syrian government installation rather than an arms shipment and harked back to an Israeli airstrike that destroyed a suspected, partially constructed nuclear reactor in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour exactly 10 years ago.

This week, Israel is conducting a drill along its border with Lebanon simulating war with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

It was not immediately clear if the target struck Thursday was used for the production or storage of chemical arms. Syria denies having or using such weapons.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said two installations were hit in Thursday’s airstrike, a scientific research center and a nearby military base where short-range surface-to-surface missiles are stored.

“Many explosions were heard in the area after the air raid,” said Abdurrahman, whose group relies on a network of activists across the country.

He said Lebanese Hezbollah fighters and Iranian military officials often visit the site, adding that those killed and wounded were Syrians.

A local opposition media activist said the facility that was struck is a factory that produces missiles under the supervision of Iranian experts. He said those killed and wounded were Syrian soldiers guarding the facility. The activist spoke on condition of anonymity out of security concerns.

Days after the April 4 chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned 271 employees of Syria’s Scientific Studies and Research Center. Washington said the agency is responsible for developing and producing nonconventional weapons and the means to deliver them.

The airstrike is the farthest north since Russia joined the war in September 2015 with an air campaign to aid Assad’s forces.

Israel and Russia maintain open communication lines and a “mechanism” to prevent their air forces from coming into conflict with one another. It was not clear whether Thursday’s strike was coordinated with Moscow, and there was no immediate comment from the Russians.

Yaakov Amidror, Israel’s former national security adviser and a former general, said the strike targeted a weapons development and manufacturing site that was producing arms for Hezbollah.

Former Israeli military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin wrote on Twitter that the facility produces precision missiles, chemical weapons and barrel bombs.

Thursday’s strike occurred a day after a U.N. investigation found the Syrian government responsible for a chemical attack in April in northern Syria that killed more than 80 people.

Meanwhile, a convoy of 40 trucks carrying 1,000 tons of humanitarian aid arrived in Deir el-Zour after troops secured a corridor to the eastern city. The land convoy is the first since Syrian government forces and allied militiamen breached a nearly 3-year-old siege by the Islamic State extremist group on government-held parts of the city on Tuesday.