Israel continues airstrikes across Syria, targeting military arsenals

Damascus, Dec 16 (IANS) Israeli warplanes launched multiple airstrikes, targeting former military arsenals across Syria, according to a war monitor.
 

The latest raids hit missile bases in Battalion 107 near Zama and weapons warehouses in rural Tartus, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Sunday.

Earlier on Sunday evening, an Israeli jet reportedly struck radar installations at the Deir Al-Zour Military Airport in eastern Syria.

Earlier on Sunday, Israeli aircraft targeted former munitions depots dug into mountains in Rural Damascus, causing a series of powerful explosions.

There were no reports of casualties.

These attacks are part of an ongoing military campaign by Israel that began on December 8, targeting any remaining military capabilities linked to Syria's former leadership, as the country's new authorities are working to stabilise the country's security situation.

Israeli troops entered the United Nations-patrolled buffer zone that separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights last weekend in a move the UN said violated the 1974 armistice agreement.

The United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said Israel launched 61 missiles at Syrian military sites in less than five hours overnight, striking military warehouses in Homs, Deraa, Suwayda, and the Qalamoun mountains near Damascus, as well as air defences at the Hama airport.

The leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and de-facto head of Syria's new administration, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said Israelis can no longer justify their recent actions in Syria, but added that his country was not in a position to be drawn into a new conflict.

"The Israelis have clearly crossed the disengagement line in Syria, which threatens a new unjustified escalation in the region," al-Sharaa said, adding that despite the violation, "the general exhaustion in Syria after years of war and conflict does not allow us to enter new conflicts."

"The priority at this stage is reconstruction and stability," he added.

For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country had "no interest in a conflict with Syria", adding that Israeli actions in the country were intended to "thwart the potential threats from Syria and to prevent the takeover of terrorist elements near our border".

Meanwhile, the US said on Saturday that it had made contact with HTS, despite the US having designated the group as "terrorist" in 2018.

"We've been in contact with HTS and with other parties," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters, without specifying how the contact took place.

Blinken and other diplomats from the Arab states and Turkey held talks on Syria in Aqaba, Jordan, on Saturday.

--IANS

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