BEIRUT (National Times) – An Israeli air strike hit a shipment of Iranian weapons in the Syrian port of Latakia Tuesday, in the first such attack on the key facility, a war monitor said.<\/p>\n
The Israeli raid “directly targeted an Iranian weapons shipment in the container yard,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.<\/p>\n
Syrian state media reported the strike on the container yard at Latakia port without specifying what was targeted.<\/p>\n
The Observatory, a UK-based organisation with a wide network of sources on the ground across Syria, said the raid triggered a series of explosions.<\/p>\n
It reported “huge material losses” but added there were no immediate reports of casualties.<\/p>\n
According to the Syrian state news agency SANA, the strike occurred at 1:23 am (2323 GMT Monday).<\/p>\n
“Our air defences repelled the Israeli aggression in Latakia,” it said, adding that a number of containers caught fire in the strike.<\/p>\n
Latakia is the northernmost of Syria\u2019s main ports, and lies around 230 kilometres (140 miles) north of Damascus.<\/p>\n
Photos and footage published by SANA showed a fire in the yard but state television said later that firefighters had brought the blaze under control.<\/p>\n
Israel rarely comments on the air strikes it carries out in Syria but has said repeatedly it will not allow its archfoe Iran to extend its footprint in Syria.<\/p>\n
Since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Syrian territory, targeting government positions as well as allied Iran-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters.<\/p>\n
On November 24, Israeli missile strikes in the west of Homs province killed five people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.<\/p>\n
In two separate Israeli attacks in October, five pro-Iranian militiamen were killed near the Syrian capital Damascus while nine pro-government fighters were killed near the T4 airbase east of Palmyra in central Syria, the Observatory said.<\/p>\n
Iran has been a key support of the Syrian government in the decade-old conflict.<\/p>\n
It finances, arms and commands a number of Syrian and foreign militia groups fighting alongside the regular armed forces, chief among them Lebanon\u2019s powerful Hezbollah group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIRUT (National Times) – An Israeli air strike hit a shipment of Iranian weapons in the Syrian port of Latakia Tuesday, in the first such attack on the key facility, a war monitor said. The Israeli raid “directly targeted an Iranian weapons shipment in the container yard,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Syrian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[447],"class_list":["post-18020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-447","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n