Israeli warplanes have reportedly carried out a whole lot of airstrikes throughout Syria, together with on the capital, Damascus.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says it has documented greater than 310 strikes by the IDF for the reason that fall of the Assad regime on Sunday.
The strikes have focused army services of the Syrian Army, together with weapon warehouses, ammunition depots, airports, naval bases and analysis centres.
Israel says its actions are to stop weapons falling “into the arms of extremists” as Syria transitions right into a post-Assad period.
The SOHR reported that the assaults spanned Aleppo, Damascus and Hama, with greater than 60 happening in a single day between Monday and Tuesday alone.
Reports say that lots of the services hit haven’t merely been broken, however fully destroyed.
Rami Abdul Rahman, the founding father of the SOHR, described the influence of the strikes as destroying “all of the capabilities of the Syrian military” and mentioned that “Syrian lands are being violated”.
The IDF denied that its troops had strayed into Syrian territory, telling the BBC that experiences of tanks close to Damascus are “false”.
“IDF troops are stationed inside the buffer zone, as acknowledged prior to now,” a spokesperson mentioned.
On Monday, the Israeli army launched pictures of its troops who crossed from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights into the demilitarised buffer zone in Syria the place UN peacekeepers are primarily based.
The IDF seizure of Syrian positions within the buffer zone was a “short-term defensive place till an acceptable association is discovered”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has mentioned.
“If we are able to set up neighbourly relations and peaceable relations with the brand new forces rising in Syria, that is our want. But if we don’t, we’ll do no matter it takes to defend the State of Israel and the border of Israel,” he mentioned on Monday.
Asked concerning the IDF strikes on Monday evening, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar mentioned Israel was involved solely with defending its residents.
“That’s why we assault strategic weapons techniques like, for instance, remaining chemical weapons or long-range missiles and rockets so that they won’t fall into the arms of extremists,” he mentioned.
On Monday, the UN’s chemical watchdog warns authorities in Syria to make sure that suspected stockpiles of chemical weapons are secure.
It is just not recognized the place or what number of chemical weapons Syria has, but it surely’s believed former President Bashar al-Assad stored stockpiles.
Israel’s assaults come after Syrian insurgent fighters captured the capital, Damascus, and toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime over the weekend. He and his father had been in energy within the nation since 1971.
Forces led by the Islamist opposition group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) entered Damascus within the early hours of Sunday, earlier than showing on state tv to declare that Syria was now “free”.