The port metropolis of Latakia on the Mediterranean Sea got here beneath heavy assault, the BBC reported. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights mentioned that “Israeli warplanes” had broken or sunk about 10 Syrian naval vessels and levelled “the Barzeh scientific analysis heart” within the city.
That similar facility was hit in 2018 by Western international locations, with then-U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis describing it as a part of Syria’s “chemical weapons infrastructure.”
The wider Latakia area can also be dwelling to the Alawite minority non secular group to which Assad belongs.
“I warn right here the leaders of the rebels in Syria: Anyone who follows Assad’s path will find yourself like Assad,” Katz mentioned in Haifa. “We won’t enable an excessive Islamic terrorist entity to behave in opposition to Israel past its border, placing its residents in danger.”
But there have been no studies 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 not too long ago internet hosting three frigates, two auxiliary craft and a Kilo-class diesel-electric assault submarine). Satellite photos taken on Monday appeared to recommend the vessels had sailed, though Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov mentioned they had been merely on naval maneuvers within the Mediterranean.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov instructed journalists on Monday that Moscow was taking all “obligatory steps to determine contact in Syria with these able to guaranteeing the safety of navy bases.”
