Israel targets Syria's naval fleet 'to destroy strategic capabilities', confirms defence minister

Israel has confirmed that it has carried out extensive strikes on naval fleet of Syria, as part of its efforts to demolish military assets in the country after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

The Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, issued a statement in which it confirmed that the Israeli ships attacked the ports at Al-Bayda and Latakia on Monday night, where 15 vessels were docked.

As per the IDF, Israeli warplanes had conducted over 350 air strikes on targets across Syria. It also moved ground forces into the demilitarised buffer zone between Syria and the occupied Golan Heights.

Israel’s attacks on Syria came within hours after Syrian rebel fighters captured the capital, Damascus, after Assad fled the country, reportedly for Russia.

Assad and before him his father, had been in power in Syria since 1971.

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In the early hours of Sunday (December 8) forces led by the Islamist opposition group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) entered Damascus and in sometime appeared on state television to declare that Syria was now “free”.

‘Great success’

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz, meanwhile, in a statement said that the IDF was aiming to “destroy strategic capabilities that threaten the State of Israel”.

Katz further said that the operation to destroy the Syrian fleet had been a “great success”.

Attacked to prevent Syria ‘from falling into the hands of extremists’

Sharing more details about its attack on Syria, the IDF said a wide range of targets including airfields, military vehicles, anti-aircraft weapons and arms production sites had been struck in Damascus, as well as Homs, Tartus and Palmyra.

The Israeli forces also targeted weapon warehouses, ammunition depots and “dozens” of sea-to-sea missiles.

The IDF reasoned that it had carried out attacks on Syria to prevent them “from falling into the hands of extremists”.

The Israeli troops are operating in Syrian territory beyond the buffer zone bordering the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the IDF confirmed.

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Israel would ‘respond forcefully’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also released a video message in which he warned the Syrian rebel group -HTS - that ousted Assad, Israel would “respond forcefully” if they allow Iran to “re-establish itself in Syria”.

Previously, Netanyahu expressed a desire for peaceful ties with the new Syrian government, and cast its interventions as defensive.

On Monday, Netanyahu had said that the seizure of Syrian positions by the IDF in the buffer zone was a “temporary defensive position until a suitable arrangement is found.”

“If we can establish neighbourly relations and peaceful relations with the new forces emerging in Syria, that’s our desire. But if we do not, we will do whatever it takes to defend the State of Israel and the border of Israel,” he had said.

Israel unilaterally annexed the Golan in 1981. The move was not recognised internationally, although the US did so unilaterally in 2019.

With inputs from agencies.