The latest round of strikes targeted missile warehouses in the Qalamoun Mountains in Damascus, as well as weapons warehouses and air defense facilities in Homs and Hama, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.
“Since Saturday evening, Israeli warplanes have launched 61 airstrikes and carried out 26 raids. This brings the number of Israeli strikes to 446, targeting 13 Syrian provinces since the fall of the former regime on December 8,” the Observatory said.
Israel has been scrambling to destroy Syria’s military stockpiles since last Sunday, when rebels ousted Bashar al-Assad’s regime from power and sent him fleeing to Russia. It has also sent troops marching across the border into a buffer zone east of the annexed Golan Heights, a move condemned by Arab countries and the United Nations.
It has defended its decision to send troops across the border as a precaution to political uncertainty in Syria.
As Assad’s regime fell, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “historic day for the Middle East.”
