Syria war monitor reports Israeli strikes on military sites

A Syria war monitor said Israel launched strikes early Saturday targeting military sites in Damascus and its countryside, in the latest such raids since rebels brought down Bashar al-Assad almost a week ago.

“Israeli strikes destroyed a scientific institute” and other related military facilities in Barzeh, in northern Damascus, and targeted a “military airport” in the capital’s countryside, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Strikes also targeted “Scud ballistic missile warehouses” and launchers in the Qalamun area, as well as “rockets, depots and tunnels under the mountain”, according to the Britain-based Observatory, which has a network of sources inside Syria.

The Observatory said several rounds of bombardment targeted “military sites of the former regime forces, as part of destroying what is left of the future Syrian army’s capabilities”.

Israel air strikes on Friday targeted “a missile base at the top of Damascus’s Mount Qasyun”, the group said, as well as an airport in southern Sweida province and “defence and research labs in Masyaf”, in Hama province.

Since Assad’s fall, Israel has launched hundreds of strikes against Syrian military sites, targeting everything from chemical weapons stores to air defences.

In a move that has drawn international condemnation, Israel also seized a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone on the Syrian Golan Heights just hours after the rebels, led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, took Damascus.

On Thursday, UN chief Antonio Guterres expressed concern over “extensive violations” of Syrian sovereignty and the Israeli strikes in the country, his spokesman said.

AFP