Israel confirms attack on Syrian naval fleet
Israel has confirmed it carried out attacks on Syria’s naval fleet.
The BBC has verified videos showing blasts at the port of Latakia in Syria, with footage appearing to show extensive damage to ships and parts of the port.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says it has documented more than 310 strikes by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since the fall of the Assad regime on Sunday.
Israeli warplanes have also reportedly carried out hundreds of airstrikes across Syria, including on the capital, Damascus.
In a statement, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said the IDF was aiming to “destroy strategic capabilities that threaten the State of Israel”.
He added that the operation to destroy the Syrian fleet had been a “great success”.
Meanwhile, the IDF confirmed it has troops operating in Syrian territory beyond the demilitarized buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
It added that its strikes were to prevent weapons falling “into the hands of extremists” as Syria transitions to a post-Assad era.
The SOHR reported that the attacks spanned Aleppo, Damascus and Hama, with more than 60 taking place overnight between Monday and Tuesday alone.
They targeted military facilities of the Syrian Army, including weapon warehouses, ammunition depots, airports, naval bases and research centres.
Reports say that many of the facilities hit have not merely been damaged, but completely destroyed.
Rami Abdul Rahman, the founder of the SOHR, described the impact of the strikes as destroying “all the capabilities of the Syrian army” and said that “Syrian lands are being violated”.
Israel’s defence minister said the Syrian fleet was attacked overnight
The IDF acknowledged that its troops had entered Syrian territory but told the BBC that reports of tanks approaching Damascus were “false”.
It said some troops had been stationed within the Area of Separation that borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights “and then a few additional points”.
“When we say a few additional points, we’re talking the area of the Area of Separation, or the area of the buffer zone in vicinity,” IDF spokesperson Nadav Shoshani told the BBC.
BBC Verify has geolocated an image of an IDF soldier standing just over half a kilometre beyond the demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights, inside Syria on a hillside near the village of Kwdana. -BBC