BEIJING, Jan. 31 (Xinhuanet) -- Israel has conducted a rare airstrike on a military target inside Syria near the border with Lebanon. It happened amid fears President Bashar Assad’s government could provide powerful weapons to the Islamic militant group Hezbollah.

The Syrian military confirmed the strike, but it said the jets bombed a military research center in a Damascus suburb, about 15 kilometers from the border with Lebanon. However, a US official said the strike hit a convoy of trucks but did not give an exact location.

The Syrian army denied that the strike had targeted a convoy. Regional security officials said Israel had been planning in the days leading up to the airstrike to hit a shipment of weapons bound for Hezbollah.

Top Israeli officials have recently expressed worries that Assad’s government could pass chemical weapons to Hezbollah or other militant groups. The airstrike was the first inside Syria in more than five years.

(Source: CNTV.cn)