[Lancey Howard]

Virtually all lasers that will cause anything remotely like blinding are invisible to the human eye.

Gertz said the laser "illuminated the cockpit" and the pilot had to be treated for eye injury.

[Gerasimov]

"Illuminate" particularly in a military sense, doesn't necessarily mean, "to cast visible light." If I paint someone with my IR targeting device, I've "illuminated" them; however, the IR illumination isn't visible with the naked eye. Likewise to "illuminating" someone with night vision or with a laser...