A daring Israeli commando raid deep into Bashar Assad's Syria in early September not only destroyed an Iranian factory producing missiles for Hezbollah to shoot into Israel, it may have been a test of a concept that puts all of Iran's nuclear facilities at risk.

On the night of September 8-9, a 120-man unit of elite Israeli Air Force Shaldag commandos in CH-53 attacked the underground factory in the Masyaf area of Syria, west of Hama, using a combination of landing and fast roping.

This is a video of US Marines fast roping from the same type of helicopter used in the Israeli operation. //

So why the big media rollout on a raid that happened three months ago? I think the first reason is to impress the locals with Israeli military capabilities. This media event, in addition to the happenings on the ground, goes a long way toward undoing any damage to the psychological dominance Israel has established over its enemies since 1948 by the October 7. 2023 massacre of Israeli civilians. The second reason is to send a message to the Iranians that you can't dig a facility deep enough to get away from the IDF if they want you.

The attack at Masyaf looked a lot like a rehearsal for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. In the aftermath of the rout of Assad's forces and the fall of the Ba'athist regime, Israel carried out a punishing campaign of air attacks on Syrian radar, fighter bases, and air defense sites. So much so that it is fair to say that Syria is incapable of knowing who is using its airspace, much less contesting that usage; see Israel Bombs Syria's Military Capability and Infrastructure Flat to Send a Message to Iran.

While Operation EAGLE CLAW, the attempted rescue of US hostages held by Iran in April 1980, was a humiliation of American arms, the same basic plan is imminently viable to take out Iran's nuclear weapons research and production facilities. The destruction of Syrian air defenses and early warning systems means a relatively large Israeli force could seize a foothold within helicopter range of the target area and, under the cover of airstrikes, penetrate Iranian nuclear facilities and destroy them.

And we can never ignore that third possible reason. Given the obvious inferences from the Masyaf raid, the Iranians may very well react by reinforcing their nuclear facilities and, in the process, reveal nuclear sites that were previously unknown.