According to Syrian state television, Israeli air raid strikes hit Syria’s Mediterranean port of Latakia for the second time this month, causing “serious material damage.”
“At around 3:21am (05:21 GMT), the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial aggression with several missiles from the direction of the Mediterranean … targeting the container yard in Latakia port,” SANA state news agency cited a military source as saying on Tuesday.
Israeli air raid strikes Syria’s Mediterranean port of Latakia.
Live footage aired by state media showed fires and smoke in the cargo terminal. Later on Tuesday, the Syrian government’s media office stated that flames in the port’s container storage facility had been put out by emergency personnel.
According to SANA, the missile attack also destroyed the facades of a hospital, some residential structures, and shops.
It added there were no initial reports of injuries as a result of the attack, which triggered Syrian air defences.
Since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, Israel has conducted regular air attacks on its war-torn neighbour, mostly targeting Syrian government forces as well as allied Iran-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters.
The blasts could be heard in Tartus, another coastal city more than 80 kilometres (almost 50 miles) south, according to a reporter for the state-run Al-Ikhbariyah TV station in the area.
“We don’t comment on rumours in foreign media,” an Israeli army spokeswoman stated when asked about the raid.
Syria‘s biggest commercial port is Latakia.
Russia, together with Iran, has an airfield at Hmeimim, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of the city, and has been President Bashar al-most Assad’s significant supporter during the war.
In the crisis, Iran has been a staunch ally of al-Assad. It supports, arms, and controls a variety of Syrian and international paramilitary groups, including Hezbollah, that fight alongside the regular armed forces.
Since it began a decade ago with the violent repression of peaceful rallies, the Syrian war has murdered hundreds of thousands of people.
