The port metropolis of Latakia on the Mediterranean Sea got here beneath heavy assault, the BBC reported. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that “Israeli warplanes” had broken or sunk about 10 Syrian naval vessels and levelled “the Barzeh scientific analysis heart” within the city.
That very same facility was hit in 2018 by Western international locations, with then-U.S. Protection Secretary Jim Mattis describing it as a part of Syria’s “chemical weapons infrastructure.”
The broader Latakia area can be dwelling to the Alawite minority non secular group to which Assad belongs.
“I warn right here the leaders of the rebels in Syria: Anybody who follows Assad’s path will find yourself like Assad,” Katz stated in Haifa. “We won’t permit an excessive Islamic terrorist entity to behave towards Israel past its border, placing its residents in danger.”
However there have been no reviews of assaults on the port metropolis of Tartus, some 100 kilometers to the south, the place Russia has had a naval presence for 5 many years (most just lately internet hosting three frigates, two auxiliary craft and a Kilo-class diesel-electric assault submarine). Satellite tv for pc photographs taken on Monday appeared to counsel the vessels had sailed, though Russian Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov stated they had been merely on naval maneuvers within the Mediterranean.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov advised journalists on Monday that Moscow was taking all “vital steps to ascertain contact in Syria with these able to guaranteeing the safety of army bases.”
