Syria denounces Israeli airstrike on Latakia port

The Syrian State Press denounced this Tuesday that Israel launched an airstrike on the port of Latakia, the second of this month in that key site for the country’s trade.

In the early hours of the morning, “the Israeli enemy carried out an air assault with several missiles from the Mediterranean… against the Latakia port container field, “the state agency SANA reported, citing a military source. The attack caused “great material damage” and started fires, SANA added.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian territory since the outbreak of the civil war in 2011, mainly against government positions, Iranian-backed forces and Hezbollah movement fighters.

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On December 7, Israel launched attacks on Iranian arms shipment in Latakia port, in western Syria, without causing casualties. It was the first attack on that facility since the start of the conflict, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“We do not comment on information in foreign media,” he told AFP. a spokesman for the Israeli army.

Israel rarely comments on the attacks it carries out on its northern neighbor, with which it still officially at war, but it has confirmed hundreds of them since 2011, when the civil conflict in Syria began. According to a report from the Israeli army, in 2020 it has attacked around 50 targets in that country.

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The deadliest operation since the start of these bombings was on January 13, 2021, in which 57 soldiers of the regime died and allied fighters in eastern Syria.

Israel has repeatedly defended these operations to prevent his arch enemy Iran from further extending his influence over the neighboring country.

The head of Israeli military intelligence, General Aharon Haliva, has accused Iran of “continuing to promote subversion and terror” in the Middle East.

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In this shadow war Israel has attacked Iran’s military installations in Syria and it has also carried out acts of sabotage within the Islamic Republic against its nuclear program.

Tehran has been a key backer of the Syrian government of Bashar al Assad in the last decade of civil war, contributing funding and weapons.

The civil conflict in Syria has killed nearly half a million people since its inception in 2011. with the brutal repression of peaceful demonstrations.