Syria
Smoke billowing due to a suspected Israeli airstrike on a position in Tartous, northwest Syria, on March 3, 2025. Photo: SOHR
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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday launched an airstrike on a military site in northwestern Syria, stating that the target belonged to the ousted Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad.
“The IDF struck a military site where weapons belonging to the previous Syrian regime were stored in the area of Al Qardahah,” the IDF said in a statement posted on X.
Qardaha, in Syria’s Latakia province, is not only the hometown of the Assad family, which ruled Syria from 1970 to 2024, but is also considered the heartland of the Alawite religious sect.
The IDF further explained that following “recent developments in the region, it was decided to strike military infrastructure at the site.”
For its part, the state-run Syrian news agency (SANA) reported on Monday that an Israeli aircraft struck the city of Tartous, which is also located in Latakia, but around 65 kilometers south of Qardaha.
SANA said that “an Israeli occupation aircraft carried out strikes on the outskirts of Tartous,” adding that no casualties were recorded. Syrian civil defense teams and “specialized teams are working to confirm the locations that were targeted,” the state-run agency added.
Meanwhile, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) on Monday corroborated SANA’s report, stating that “a violent explosion rocked Tartous port after unidentified aircrafts, probably Israeli, flew over” the city.
SOHR added that locals in the region received text messages on their mobiles urging them to “stay away from the terrorists’ locations.”
At the time of writing this report, it remained unclear whether both Qardaha and Tartous were struck separately or if one of them was targeted in one operation.
Following a swift offensive, a coalition of opposition groups led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) on December 8 toppled the regime of former Syrian dictator Assad, who fled to Russia with his family.
Since Assad’s ouster, Israel has significantly ramped up its military operations in Syria, targeting military assets, weapons depots, and strategic installations.
Israeli forces have also advanced into areas in southern Syria along the border with the Israel-annexed Golan Heights, while Tel Aviv is rejecting calls for withdrawal and insisting that its operations are against what it perceives as threats in the region.
SOHR reported on Monday that, since the beginning of 2025, Israel has launched 17 airstrikes and two ground attacks on Syria, “damaging and destroying 21 targets” including “arms and ammunition depots, [military] headquarters and centers.”
Importantly, the Israeli airstrikes come a day after Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Sunday questioned the legitimacy of the new Syrian leadership in Damascus arguing that it was not elected by the Syrian people.
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