Israel launches air attacks near Syria’s Tartous

Israel has carried out air strikes near Syria’s Mediterranean port city of Tartous, Syrian state media has reported.

An Israeli army statement on Monday said that its forces “struck a military site where weapons belonging to the previous Syrian regime were stored in the area of Qardaha”, the hometown of deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, north of the Tartous port.

Syrian state news agency SANA reported “air strikes carried out by Israeli occupation aircraft on the surroundings of Tartous city, without recording human losses so far”, adding that “civil defence and specialised teams are working to confirm the location of the targets”.

In the wake of the lightning offensive last December that toppled Syria’s longtime leader al-Assad, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Syrian military assets in what it said was a bid to prevent them from falling into hostile hands.

Last Tuesday, the Israeli army said it carried out air strikes targeting military sites containing weapons in southern Syria, just days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for demilitarising the area.

This is a developing story …