Report: U.S. in Talks with Israel over Possible Attack on Syria Arms Facilities

U.S. defense officials have held talks with their Israeli counterparts over whether Israel might strike at Syria's weapons facilities as its regime faces possible collapse, the New York Times reported.

The Times on Wednesday cited officials as saying that the Pentagon is not advocating military action because it feels that such an attack would help Syrian President Bashar Assad rally support against foreign intervention.

U.S. President Barack Obama's national security advisor Thomas Donilon was in Israel over the weekend to discuss the growing crisis, the Times said.

The report comes after rebels struck at the inner circle of Assad's regime, killing three top officials -- including the minister of defense -- in a bombing against a heavily guarded facility in which top officials were meeting.

The bombing came as heavy fighting was reported across Damascus, raising the prospect that the Assad family's 40-year regime could be facing collapse at the climax of a 16-month-old uprising inspired by the Arab Spring.

Israel and Syria have officially been in a state of war for decades, but the heavily guarded frontier between the two states has been mostly quiet since the 1973 Arab-Israeli conflict.