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.

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.