Israel strikes Syrian air defence bases in latest wave of attacks

Sites hit in Tartous and Deraa in past 24 hours, sources say

Part of a missile at a Syrian army weapons depot that was hit by Israeli bombardment. Two more sites have been struck over the past 24 hours. AFP

Israel has struck air defence sites in western and southern Syria in the past 24 hours, sources said, part of its campaign to obliterate military hardware as it intensifies attacks in the country since the takeover led by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS).

The raids targeted abandoned barracks in the coastal city of Tartous and Tel Al Mal, a hilltop site on the edge of the southern governorate of Deraa, the sources said. The two sites contain hardware related to Soviet-era Buk and Pantsir missile systems, they added.

"Almost none of these systems are still operational but Israel is also going after hardware left in storage," said a Syrian source in Jordan.

Israeli army on Monday said it had targeted a military site where arms belonging to the previous Assad government were stored. Syrian media reported that Israeli forces used helicopters, drones and bulldozers in the operation on Tel Al Mal, before withdrawing.

Since the fall of the Assad regime in December, Israel has expanded a buffer zone in the Golan Heights and warned the country's new HTS rulers to keep away from areas near Israel to the south. It has also warned HTS not to meddle with Syria's Druze community, a transnational minority whose members fear the imposition of an Islamic state in post-Assad Syria.

In the year before the removal of president Bashar Al Assad, Israel had intensified its strikes on Syrian military sites and compounds linked to Hezbollah and other pro-Iranian militia that supported the former regime.

The attacks curbed Iran's ability to build a so called united front to avenge the Israeli invasion of Gaza, launched after Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

HTS is building a new Syrian military after disbanding the former one, in a move that has raised regional alarm because of the appointment of foreign fighters from Jordan, Egypt and elsewhere in new units.

The group, formerly linked with Al Qaeda, has been solidifying control over the centre of the country but is meeting resistance in outlaying areas inhabited by members of the country's Druze and Kurdish minorities, as well as Alawite communities who provided the core support for the former regime.

Russia also maintains a naval base north of Tartous and the US has bases in the east of Syria, although continuation of American military presence in the country has become uncertain since President Donald Trump returned to power in January.

At least three people have been killed since Saturday after forces loyal to HTS made incursions into the neighbourhood of Jaramana, near Damascus, prompting the Druze community to bring in reinforcements from the sect's heartland in the southern governorate of Suweida. Retreat by both sides later helped de-escalate the situation.

In the past week, Israel has warmed HTS not to deploy in Suweida and presented itself as a friend to the Druze and other minorities. “Israel has strong ties with the Druze, we also have a Druze minority here in Israel," Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said. "It is important that the new rulers in Damascus respect the rights of minorities."

Sana, the official Syrian news agency, on Tuesday said security forces have conducted a large raid in several neighbourhoods in the coastal city of Latakia, looking for "Assad militia remnants" who had killed two members of a force belonging to the Syrian Defence Ministry. The ministry is headed by Murhaf Abu Qasra, a major military figure in HTS.