Israeli special forces killed at least 16 people and struck a blow against a suspected Iranian missile factory, U.S. officials said.

The decision to involve troops on the ground who were armed with demolition charges was made to ensure that the facility was destroyed entirely, the officials said. Israel had struck the facility repeatedly in the past, and in 2018 it assassinated a Syrian rocket scientist who worked at the center developing precision-guided munitions.

An independent U.N. commission says Israel has intensified airstrikes on Iranian-linked targets in Syria, inflicting civilian casualties on at least three occasions.

An elite Israel Defense Forces unit conducted a highly unusual raid in Syria earlier this week and destroyed an underground precision missile factory that Israel and the U.S. claim was built by Iran,

The missile production facility was destroyed in the attack, according to Western officials. Syrian state media reported that 18 people were killed in the strike.

The Israeli military said Friday that over the source of the week it had acted in Syria against targets, just days after Syrian state media reported Israeli airstrikes killed 16 people in western Syria and wounded dozens more.

Israel destroyed a secretive missile production facility in northwest Syria last week in an attack that included inserting special operations forces by helicopter to retrieve equipment and documents,

Israel and Hezbollah have increasingly exchanged fire with volleys of missiles and strikes, with Israel escalating after the attack on the Golan Heights that killed a dozen children.