“Israeli raids targeted military units and air defense units on the Syrian coast,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor. “They are considered the most violent strikes in the Syrian coastal region since the start of the raids in 2012.”
Israel has been scrambling to destroy Syria’s military stockpiles since December 8, when Islamist-led rebels ousted Bashar al-Assad’s regime from power and sent him fleeing to Russia. It has also sent troops across the border into a buffer zone east of the annexed Golan Heights, a move condemned by Arab countries and the United Nations as a violation of a 1974 armistice.
It has defended its decision to send troops across the border as a precaution to political uncertainty in Syria.
As Assad’s regime fell, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “historic day for the Middle East.”
On Sunday, Israel also struck radar systems in a military airport in eastern Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province.
