World /

Copied

Two ominous developments in Syria overnight:

• Israel airstrike: Israel bombed a site within Syria for the second time this year, reports Reuters. Official details are scarce, but the Israeli strike reportedly hit a warehouse that contained high-tech missiles, though not chemical weapons. Israeli officials feared that Bashar al-Assad was sending them to Hezbollah in Lebanon, reports AP.
• Residents fleeing: The BBC reports that hundreds of Syrians have fled coastal areas amid unconfirmed accounts of at least two massacres by pro-government militia members. A BBC correspondent says videos, which haven't been verified, show corpses including women and children in the villages of al-Bayda and Baniya. Opposition groups allege that a campaign of "sectarian cleansing" is underway to set up a safe haven for members of the minority Alawite sect, of which Assad is a member.

(Read more Israel stories.)