Israeli strike on Tartous causes earthquake

A magnitude 3 earthquake was felt after Israeli army bombing of the coastal town of Tartous overnight from Sunday to Monday.

“The most violent attack in the region since 2012”, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH). Intense Israeli strikes targeted military sites in the coastal region of Tartous in north-west Syria during the night of Sunday December 15 to Monday December 16, reports the OSDH. Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes against military sites in Syria, according to this NGO based in the United Kingdom and with a vast network of sources inside Syria. In Tartous, these strikes were so violent that they caused an earthquake measuring 3 on the Richter scale, according to Afad, the Turkish disaster office.

In Tartous on Sunday evening, “Israeli warplanes launched strikes on several sites”including air defense units and “surface-to-surface missile depots”, indicates the OSDH. Balls of fire rose above the targeted warehouses, according to photos taken by residents. An earthquake was felt immediately, at 11:48 p.m. French time, indicates the Volcano discovery site which lists volcanological and seismological data.

Tartus, which is the country's second largest port, hosts one of Russia's main military bases. It is a naval base opened in the 1970s, under the USSR. It is strategic for the Russian navy because it ensures a presence in the Mediterranean. Since the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Russia, Moscow has been concerned about the future of its military sites in Syria. Russia has started discussions with the new Syrian authorities, in order to guarantee the security of its bases, but their future is uncertain.