Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is vowing to keep “dangerous weapons” out of the hands of Hezbollah Islamist militants in Lebanon.  This follows a report that Israel targeted a shipment of Russian missiles in an airstrike.

Netanyahu did not confirm nor deny the attack, which happened on 5 July near the port of Latakia in Syria, according to an American official cited in a report in the New York Times.  It’s apparently the fourth Israeli air strike against Syria so far this year.

Syria has not commented on the attack and hasn’t specified any plans to arm Hezbollah with Russian missiles.  The suspected Yakhont cruise missiles were designed to travel at twice the speed of sound and would have greatly improved Syria’s capacity to target manned aircraft. 

Although Russia is the Syrian government’s chief arms supplier, Moscow says it is committed to moving ahead the peace process between the rebel coalition and the Bashar al-Assad government.