Airstrikes “likely” launched by Israel on Monday targeted ammunition depots of a state company for technical industries in the Syrian coastal province of Latakia that serves the army loyal to dictator Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Iran, several news outlets report, citing Syrian media.
“Syria state media is reporting loud explosions in the Syrian coastal Latakia province, saying are likely from Israeli strikes targeting a state company for technical industries. A military official says more strikes targeted the provincial capital from the sea but Syrian air defenses intercepted them,” the Associated Press reports, citing Syria’s state-run al-Ikhbariya TV.
AP identified the target as the state-owned Institute for Technical industries in Latakia province.
According to Russia’s state-owned Sputnik news, the facility belongs to the Syrian Army.
“Air defenses have confronted enemy missiles coming from the sea in the direction of the Latakia city, and intercepted a number of them,” the state-controlled Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) learned from a military source, Reuters notes.
The Ynet News site confirmed that “huge explosions” took place in state-controlled Latakia, adding that “the missiles targeted ammunition depots of the technical industry institution in the eastern outskirts of Latakia.”
Israel is known to target Iranian assets inside Syria, though it rarely acknowledges the attacks. The Islamic Republic has deployed thousands of fighters to assist Assad in Syria, which borders Israel.
Citing the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which uses a network of sources on the ground to monitor the ongoing war in Syria, Haaretz notes that Israeli strikes have killed 140 fighters from the Iranian military and Tehran-backed militias fighting in Syria over the past five months.
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