Israeli commandos abseil to destroy Syrian missile bunker

Israel's special forces commandos have to be the most brazen military operatives on the planet. Last week, it has now been revealed, the Israeli Air Force carried out a series of airstrikes on a deep bunker buried in a mountain in Syria where the Syrians, Iran and Hezbollah have been developing new missiles and who knows what else, probably chemical and biological weapons. But because the bombs used by the air force couldn't penetrate deep enough, dozens of Israeli special forces abseiled from helicopters and entered the bunker, killing guards as they approached and then went right down into the depths, grabbed computers and documents and then laid time-fused explosives everywhere. Once they were back on the helicopters, the bombs exploded, destroying everything. Amazing. Israel had known about the secret bunker for about five years but every time the special forces' leaders came up with plans to destroy it, it was judged to be too risky. This time, Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, who could do with some good news for a change, gave the go ahead. This extraordinary mission will serve as a warning to Iran which has its own deep bunkers in mountains where Iranian scientists are developing a nuclear weapons programme. Only the US has the sort of deep-penetration bombs that could reach the depths of these bunkers. So Israel, if it ever carries out an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, knows that without the American bombs, it will have to do a similar operation as the one in Syria, with airstrikes and special forces ground attacks. Tehran will be on notice.