After the rebels took control, the Israeli Air Force and Navy struck missile depots, ships, fighter jets and more to ensure that such equipment did not fall into the wrong hands
After a massive 48-hour bombing campaign in Syria on Tuesday, the IDF said it had destroyed most of the strategic military capabilities of the former Bashar al-Assad regime.
The goal was to prevent advanced weaponry from being captured by hostile groups.
The IDF said it had carried out more than 350 strikes against “strategic targets” in Syria since the Assad regime fell over the weekend, destroying “most of the strategic weapons stockpiles in Syria.”
The military estimated that it had destroyed between 70 percent and 80 percent of the former Assad regime’s strategic military capabilities.
The operation was dubbed “Arrow of Bashan” within the army, in reference to the biblical name for the Golan Heights region and southern Syria.
The IDF released videos of the campaign, saying that more than 320 targets were struck across Syria.
The strikes began late Saturday, first disabling Syrian air defenses to give the Israeli Air Force more freedom.
Waves of airstrikes by IAF fighter jets and drones then hit Syrian air bases, weapons depots and weapons production sites in cities including Damascus, Homs, Tartus, Latakia and Palmyra, according to the army.
The army said the airstrikes destroyed many long-range projectiles, Scud missiles, cruise missiles, coast-to-sea missiles, air defense missiles, fighter jets, helicopters, radars, tanks, hangars and more.
The IAF also struck several chemical weapons sites in Syria during the campaign, according to Israeli officials.
On Monday night, Israeli navy ships destroyed 15 vessels belonging to the former regime in Minet el-Beida Bay and the port of Latakia on the Syrian coast.
The Assad regime, which fell on Sunday after a swift rebel offensive, was allied with Iran and part of the so-called Axis of Resistance against Israel.
For many years, Syria has been used as a conduit for Iranian weapons to reach terrorist groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, with which Israel established a shaky ceasefire last month.
Israel feared that if the Assad regime fell, weapons from the former Syrian army could fall into the hands of hostile forces at home and also to Hezbollah in Lebanon, which is backed by Iran.
In a message to the new regime emerging in Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel would seek to establish relations but would not hesitate to strike if Syria threatened the Jewish state.
“We have no intention of interfering in the internal affairs of Syria,” he said in a video statement, “but we will certainly do what is necessary to ensure our security.”
Thus, he said, the Israeli air force was bombing “strategic military capabilities” left by the Syrian army of the ousted Assad regime “so that they do not fall into the hands of the jihadists.” “We want good relations with the new regime in Syria,” he continued.
“But if this regime allows Iran to reestablish itself in Syria, or allows the transfer of Iranian weapons or any other weapons to Hezbollah, or attacks us, we will respond with force and impose a heavy price on it.”
“What happened to the previous regime will also happen to this regime,” he warned.
Defense Minister Israel Katz also warned Syrian rebels, saying that any entity that threatens Israel will be relentlessly targeted.
“The IDF has acted in recent days to attack and destroy strategic capabilities that threaten the State of Israel,” he said during a visit to the Haifa Naval Base, where he was updated on naval strikes on Assad’s naval assets.
He warned rebels that “whoever follows in Assad’s footsteps will end up like Assad.
We will not allow an entity of extreme Islamic terror to act against Israel from beyond our borders…
we will do everything to remove the threat.”
Katz reiterated that the IDF is creating a demilitarized zone and said he had ordered the creation of a “sterile defense zone” in southern Syria, without a permanent Israeli presence, to prevent any terrorist threat to Israel.
The Israeli operations in Syria followed a swift offensive by rebels that on Sunday toppled the regime of Bashar al-Assad, marking a dramatic two-week chapter in a civil war that began in 2011 and had been in a stalemate for years.
After the fall of the regime, Israel moved to destroy regime weapons sites before they could fall into the hands of hostile forces, amid a chaotic takeover by rebel groups, many of which were initially associated with al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups.
At the same time, Israel denied reports that its ground forces had advanced beyond a buffer zone in the Golan Heights that the IDF seized on Sunday, emphasizing that its control of that area was a temporary defensive measure.
“Reports circulating in some media outlets claiming that IDF troops are advancing or approaching Damascus are completely incorrect,” Col.
Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic spokesman, wrote in X.
“IDF troops are present inside the buffer zone and in defensive positions near the border to protect the Israeli border,” he added.
The comment came after Reuters, citing two regional security sources and a Syrian security source, claimed that troops had reached “Qatana.” It was not clear whether the report referred to the Qatana district, parts of which touch the buffer zone, or the town of Qatana, which is about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) from Damascus and east of the buffer zone.
Israel has said it would not get involved in the conflict in Syria and that its occupation of the buffer zone established in 1974 was a defensive measure.
Israel said its air strikes would continue for days, but told the UN Security Council it was not intervening in the Syria conflict.
It said it had taken “limited and temporary measures” only to protect its security.
Published in 12/11/2024 10h49
Text adapted by AI (ChatGPT/Grok) and translated via Google API in the English version. Images from public image libraries or credits in the caption. Information about DOI, author and institution can be found in the body of the article.
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