Israeli airstrike hits Iran weapons shipment in Syrian port: Report, World News

An Israeli air strike hit a shipment of Iranian weapons in the Syrian port of Latakia on Tuesday, the first such attack on the key facility, a war observer said.

The Israeli raid “aimed directly at an Iranian arms delivery in the container yard,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syrian state media reported on the attack on the container yard in the port of Latakia without giving any details about the targets.

The Observatory, a UK organization with a wide network of local sources across Syria, said the raid sparked a series of explosions.

It reported “enormous material losses,” but added that there were no immediate reports of casualties.

The attack occurred at 1:23 a.m. (2323 GMT Monday), according to the Syrian state news agency SANA.

“Our air defense has repulsed the Israeli aggression in Latakia,” it said. Several containers caught fire in the attack.

Latakia is the northernmost of Syria’s main ports and is approximately 230 kilometers (140 miles) north of Damascus.

Photos and recordings published by SANA showed a fire in the courtyard, but state television later announced that the fire brigade had brought the fire under control.

Israel rarely comments on the air strikes it is carrying out in Syria, but has repeatedly said that it will not allow its archenemy Iran to expand its footprint in Syria.

Since the outbreak of civil war in Syria in 2011 Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Syrian territory targeting government positions, allied Iranian-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters.

On November 24, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, five people died in Israeli rocket attacks in western Homs province.

Two separate Israeli attacks in October killed five pro-Iranian militiamen near the Syrian capital, Damascus, while nine pro-government fighters were killed near the T4 air base east of Palmyra in central Syria, the observatory said.

Iran has been a major supporter of the Syrian government in the decades-long conflict.

It funds, arms and commands a number of Syrian and foreign militias that fight alongside the regular armed forces, most notably the powerful Hezbollah group in Lebanon.

Tuesday’s strike came as Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad completed a visit to Tehran, where he met with senior officials to discuss deepening ties.

In 2019, Syria announced that it would hand over the container terminal in the port of Latakia to Iran.

Earlier this year, Iran announced that it would establish a direct shipping line between Latakia and one of its southern ports.

The war in Syria has been estimated to have killed nearly half a million people and displaced millions more since it began with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011.

https://www.wionews.com/world/israeli-airstrike-hits-iran-weapons-shipment-in-syrian-port-report-434946