NICOSIA, Jan 30: Israeli forces carried out an air strike overnight on a weapons convoy from Syria near the Lebanese border, security sources said on Wednesday.

The attack came after Israel expressed concerns that Damascus’s stockpile of chemical weapons could fall into the hands of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, an ally of the Syrian regime, or other militant organisations.

Israeli officials have said the transfer would likely spark an Israeli attack.

Sources differed on whether the strike took place on Syrian or Lebanese territory.

“The Israeli air force blew up a convoy that had just crossed the border from Syria into Lebanon,” one source said, adding that the convoy was believed to be carrying weapons, without specifying the type.

An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.

A second security source also confirmed that Israeli warplanes had hit a convoy allegedly carrying weapons to Lebanon but said the incident occurred just inside Syria.

“It was an armed convoy travelling towards Lebanon but it was hit on the Syrian side of the border at around 2330 GMT,” the source said.

As well as concerns about Syria's chemical weapons stockpile, Israel has accused Syria of supplying long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah.

It has also warned about the dangers of other advanced weaponry falling into the Lebanese militia's hands, such as anti-aircraft systems and surface-to-surface missiles.

Ahead of the strike, both sources reported a high level of “unusual” Israeli activity over Lebanese airspace, beginning on Tuesday evening and continuing overnight.The Lebanese army said Israeli warplanes had entered Lebanese airspace up to 16 times between 9.30am on Tuesday and 2am on Wednesday.

“Every day there are Israeli overflights, but on Tuesday they were much more intense than usual,” a Lebanese security source told said.—AFP