Israel strikes missile depots, air defences in Syria’s Tartous region
Al Jazeera
While Israel continues blitz on sites in Syria, new administration in Damascus forges ahead with international outreach.
Israel launched overnight attacks on Syrian air defence systems and ammunition depots in its ongoing bid to disable the country’s military capability following the recent removal of President Bashar al-Assad.
War monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), said on Monday that Israel targeted military sites in Syria’s coastal Tartous region, including air defence units and “surface-to-surface missile depots”, saying the attack featured “the heaviest strikes” in the area in more than a decade.
“The explosions in Tartous were extremely loud,” said Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from the Syrian capital, Damascus. “Some experts are saying that might probably mean it was a chemical weapons production house.”
The targeting of Tartous was “important”, given its role as a base for Syrian naval forces, he said, adding that the Israeli military had obliterated “a complete fleet” just three days before.
Overnight, Israel also bombed sites in and around Damascus, particularly around the Qasioun mountain, hitting “radar systems” and “air defence systems”, according to Serdar.
