Israel Army Says Struck 'Military Site' in Northwest Syria
An Israeli fighter jet returning to base flies above an area near Tel Aviv on September 26, 2024. ©Photo by Gil Cohen-Magen / AFP

Israel's military said it struck a military site in northwest Syria on Monday, as a Syria war monitor reported an explosion in the Tartus area.

An army statement said that Israeli 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 Tartus port.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "a strong explosion rocked the Tartus port, at the same time as unknown aircraft, likely Israeli", flew overhead, reporting smoke rising from the site.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP the explosion was in a military base near the port.

Syrian state media did not immediately report the incident.

Israel carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria during its civil war which broke out in 2011, mainly on government forces and Iranian-linked targets.

After the lightning offensive that ousted Syria's longtime president Bashar al-Assad, Israel carried out hundreds more 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 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for demilitarising the area.

At least two people were killed by a strike on one of the sites, the headquarters of a military unit southwest of Damascus, the Observatory said at the time.

With AFP

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