Most devastating Israeli strikes on Syria in over a decade - but Netanyahu says 'no war with Syria'
Share:
Israel has overnight smashed crisis-hit Syrian targets with the “most violent strikes since 2012,” according to UK-based war monitors - even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells US President-elect Donald Trump he does not want war with his neighbour.
It happened amid fears Syria could descend further into violent civil war from Islamic State and other groups and Israel tries to destroy toppled despot Bashar al-Assad’s military so jihadists cannot use them against it. Strikes obliterated missile warehouses in Syria, triggering secondary blasts and more military targets along the country’s coast.
Enormous explosions hit the coastal city of Tartous “as a result of successive strikes and ground to ground missiles from the warehouses”. Tartous was a centre for Russia’s military - giving Putin access to the Mediterranean, Europe and north Africa.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the violence overnight was the worst in over a decade - and happened just hours after PM Netanyahu spoke to President-elect Trump on Sunday. Shortly after that conversation he issued a staggering claim in which he said: “We have no interest in a conflict with Syria. We will determine Israeli policy regarding Syria according to the reality on the ground.”.
Israel has destroyed 80% of Syria’s military in a bid to stop weapons getting into the hands of jihadists. The US embassy in Damascus advised Americans to leave Syria, saying the security situation there continues to be volatile and unpredictable with armed conflict and "terrorism throughout the country.”.
