Israel continued their attacks on Syria overnight with airstrikes against the major northern port city of Latakia, launching at least six airstrikes against the city, with many focusing on the port itself and the 110th Naval Brigade’s facility, which houses warboats.
Syria doesn’t have a substantial navy, just a small coastal defense force that mostly consists of small missile boats used to try to repel naval attacks. It’s not clear what boats remain after hundreds of airstrikes by Israel in the past few months already hit multiple military assets, including on the coast, but it’s likely very small boats indeed.
Details are still emerging about the damage, as Syrian state media reports that authorities are still checking the sites that got struck to assess the situation. No casualties have been reported so far, however, so it’s likely mostly just damage to port facilities and whatever boats remained.
Israel has been attacking Syria for decades, but escalated the airstrikes on military targets precipitously in December, after the Assad government was ousted. They’ve launched hundreds of such strikes, and also launched a ground invasion of Syria’s south.
The invasion of the south has seen growing opposition from locals, and even some armed resistance. Tuesday, a clash broke out in the south, leading to at least six (by some accounts seven) Syrians being killed in an Israeli airstrike called in.
Locals insist that the people fighting the invading troops were just residents of Koayiah, a small town in the Daraa Governorate, and said only some of them had guns, some were just using sticks.
An alternate media report claims the people resisting the troops were from Syria’s Islamic Resistance Front, which is reportedly linked with Hezbollah. The locals deny this was the case, however, and insist no such organizations are active at all in Koayiah.
