Chemical war drill
Chemical war drillIDF Spokesman's Unit

IDF Special Forces are operating inside Syria to track chemical weapons, the London Sunday Times reported. The Israeli government has not commented on the report.

The report from London comes hours after Syrian opposition forces released a video showing that Syrian President Bashar Assad has used chemical weapons in the commercial center of Aleppo.

The newspaper stated that the IDF operations across the border are part of new secret operations to locate non-conventional weapons and to sabotage them to prevent their use.

“We have known for years the exact location of Syria’s stockpile of chemical and biological weapons," an Israeli source told The London Times. He noted that satellites and unmanned drones have helped locate the weapons.

However, “In the past week we have received signs that munitions have been moved to new location," according to the source. The IDF ordered the maneuvers after rejecting the idea of an aerial or ground assault to destroy Syrian President Bashar Assad’s stockpile of chemical weapons, most of them bought from Russia.

One of the objections to a frontal attack was the chance that the chemicals might be released and cause a catastrophe to local villages and cities.

If evidence mounts that Assad already has used chemical weapons, the United States and Israel might coordinate to carry out a ground invasion, according to the London newspaper.