The Israeli air force has deployed three of its Iron Dome rocket interceptor systems and one Patriot surface-to-air missile defence battery to northern Israel as the unstable situation in Syria continues.

Tension between the nations has mounted after the Israeli air force launched air strikes against targets inside Syria in late January.

Syria has officially said a "scientific research centre" was the intended target during the attack, while other sources have claimed that Israel struck a convoy of vehicles being used to transfer surface-to-air missiles to Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

Other sources say the raid also had a secondary purpose - to test the capability of Syria's anti-aircraft infrastructure in detecting fighter aircraft entering its airspace.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's forces have a large stockpile of Scud-B, -C and -D-model ballistic missiles, some of which are alleged to have been upgraded with help from North Korea. Damascus also has a large stockpile of chemical warfare agents.

Source: Flight International