The Israeli air force carried out a vast operation overnight from Sunday to Monday aimed at destroying the chemical weapons stocks and strategic installations of the former Syrian regime. These massive strikes come the day after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, in a context of collapse of Syrian military structures. “We have targeted residual chemical weapons capabilities in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of extremist groups,” confirmed Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar during a briefing with the international press.
According to “La Voix de la Capitale”, a Syrian media close to the opposition, “Israel is systematically destroying all the brigades and battalions of the old regime in southern Syria, by directly striking all air defense systems, depots missiles and development and production institutes.”
The Israeli defense forces have at the same time reinforced their presence along the border. Artillery and tank units were deployed in the Golan Heights and the buffer zone. Shaldag special forces took up positions on Mount Hermon, the highest point in the region.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visiting the front, described these events as “historic”, stressing that “the fall of Assad is a direct consequence of the blows we dealt to Iran and Hezbollah, the main supporters of the regime.”
Israeli military authorities are observing a hasty withdrawal of Iranian forces from Syrian territory, while the last Assad loyalists retreat to their last Alawite stronghold on the Mediterranean coast, between Tartous and Latakia.
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