Israel launches airstrike in Syria

Israel launched an airstrike into Syria, apparently targeting a suspected weapons site, US officials have said.

It did not appear that a chemical weapons site was targeted, they said, and one official suggested the strike seemed to have hit a warehouse.

The news came as President Barack Obama said that the US does not expect to send ground troops into Syria under any circumstances.

The US officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly.

Israel has targeted weapons in the past that it believes are being delivered to the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah.

Earlier this week, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said his group would assist Syrian President Bashar Assad if needed in the effort to put down the two-year-old uprising.

Israeli Embassy spokesman Aaron Sagui would not comment specifically on the report of an Israeli strike into Syria.

"What we can say is that Israel is determined to prevent the transfer of chemical weapons or other game-changing weaponry by the Syrian regime to terrorists, specially to Hezbollah in Lebanon," he said.

In 2007, Israeli jets bombed a suspected nuclear reactor site along the Euphrates River in north-eastern Syria, an attack that embarrassed and jolted the Assad regime and led to a buildup of the Syrian air defence system.

Russia provided the hardware for the defence systems upgrade and continues to be a reliable supplier of military equipment to the Assad regime.

Word of the new strike just before Mr Obama told a press conference in Costa Rica that did not expect the US to send ground troops into Syria.

"I do not foresee a scenario in which boots on the ground in Syria, American boots on the ground, would not only be good for America but also would be good for Syria," he said.

More than 70,000 people have died and hundreds of thousands have fled the country as the Assad regime has fought rebels.

The Israeli strike follows days of concerns that Syria might be using chemical weapons against opposition forces.

Mr Obama has called evidence of the use of chemical weapons a "game-changer" that would have "enormous consequences".

While the US has been providing non-lethal aid to opposition forces in Syria, stepping up support in recent days, the Obama administration has resisted calls from some American politicians to arm the rebels, or work to establish a no-fly zone to aid the insurgency.

But on Thursday, Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said the administration is rethinking its opposition to providing arms to the rebels.

He said it was one of several options as the US consults with allies about steps to be taken to drive the Assad regime from power.

Concerns that US weapons could end up in the hands of al Qaida-linked groups helping the Syrian opposition or other extremists, including Hezbollah, have stood in the way of that change in strategy.