While international weapons inspectors announced they’ve ended Syria’s ability to manufacture and deploy chemical weapons, Israeli warplanes attacked a shipment of Russian missiles inside a stronghold of forces loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

The proclamation from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) comes a day before the deadline on completing this part of decommissioning Syria’s chemical weapons.  The equipment for producing, mixing and filling chemical weapons has been destroyed, and the existing chemical weapons stocks have been placed under seal.

Syria now has until mid-2014 to destroy the chemical weapons on its own.

“I am increasingly confident that we will be able to complete this task, within the target date of 30 June of next year,” said US State Department official Thomas Countryman.

Earlier, the Israelis attacked the Syrian port city of Latakia, destroying a shipment of Russian-made SA-125 missiles.  Israel hasn’t taken sides in the Syrian civil war, but has twice before attacked missiles shipments to the Assad regime.  It’s not clear what Bashar al-Assad will do about it; his forces were pretty well occupied with the civil war during the earlier Israeli attacks.  This time around, they enjoy the upper hand on the battlefield with the rebels.