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( JNS) The Israel Defense Forces has conducted 300 strikes in Syria since Sunday’s ouster of Bashar Assad, Israeli media reported on Tuesday, marking the heaviest air campaign in the country since the 1972 Yom Kippur War.
Israel’s Ynet news outlet cited Western intelligence sources late Monday night as confirming the figure, saying that the aerial assault is mainly targeting air force bases, including entire squadrons of fighter jets.
#IDF airstrikes in #Syria have destroyed all MiG-29 squadrons of the former Syrian Air Force, multiple radars & weapons depots. Air defenses and naval ships at the Port of Latakia were also hit. #Israel aims to prevent these assets from falling into the wrong hands. #Assad #HTS pic.twitter.com/77WqKSWqOb
— War_Room_ME (@WarRoomME) December 9, 2024
It is believed that the Syrian Air Force could be destroyed in its entirety “within a few days,” Ynet noted, which would substantially reduce the threat posed to the Jewish state by the incoming Syrian government.
The last time Israel destroyed an entire air force was in 1967, when the Egyptian Air Force was wiped out in the first hours of the Six-Day War.
Local security sources told Reuters on Monday that the Israeli Air Force had attacked at least three army bases that housed dozens of helicopters and jets in the largest wave of strikes on the Syrian Air Force since Assad was toppled.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based war monitor with links to the Syrian opposition, was cited by AFP as confirming that Israel carried out more than 100 strikes on Monday, including on a suspected chemical weapons production site. The IDF did not immediately comment on the strikes.
Early on Tuesday morning, AFP and Al Jazeera reported loud blasts in Damascus, with the latter outlet attributing the explosions to Israel.
On Sunday, Syrian President Bashar Assad fled Damascus as a coalition of rebel groups stormed the capital, ending his family’s five-decade rule.
Huge explosions after IDF attacked one of the ammunition and weapons depots of Assad’s army in Syria. pic.twitter.com/urBovw4kAN
— Asaad Sam Hanna (@AsaadHannaa) December 10, 2024