Multiple large explosions shook Syria's coastal areas, home to Russian and pro-Assad bases, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, as Israel continued its week-long bombing campaign targeting military installations across the country.
In addition to the airstrikes on positions in the 23rd Brigade of the Aerial Defense and the headquarters of the 23rd Brigade, targets included missiles depots and launchers, radars at a military airport, and bases in the 107th Barracks on Sunday.
“Violent explosions were heard in Tartus due to consecutive strikes and explosions of ground-to-ground missiles from the warehouses,” the rights group said on Monday.
“These are considered the most violent strikes in the area of the Syrian coast since the start of the airstrikes in 2012,” they added. SOHR said no casualties were reported.
Since the beginning of Syria's civil war in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria to quash Iran’s influence as it used the Arab state to smuggle supplies to its military allies in the region such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The strikes reported by the SOHR in Tartus were picked up by Israel’s earthquake monitor late Sunday night, although there has been no confirmation of the connection.
A 3.1 magnitude temblor, said to be 20km deep, was reported by the Geographic Survey of Israel’s seismology department at 11:49 pm Sunday night, with its epicenter about 28 kilometers (17 miles) off the coast of the city of Banias.
Volcano Discovery, an earthquake monitoring site, also reported that it had received four reports from Syria and Cyprus for the earthquake reported at 12:48am on Monday, said to have been felt in up to approximately 20 km (12 mi) away. It said the quake was 5km deep.
While Israel continues to reiterate it has no interest in conflict with Syria and never comments on strikes, since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, it has carried out a series of strikes on weapons facilities and research centers in preventive action as the new Sunni leadership takes control, including destroying leftover chemical weapons facilities from the Assad government.
Israel has troops inside the buffer zone and slightly beyond, as it continues to act to prevent a repeat of the October 7 attacks last year which saw Iran-backed Hamas infiltrate the country, killing over 1,100 people and taking more than 250 hostages.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that the latest developments in Syria increased the threat to Israel, "despite the moderate image that the rebel leaders claim to present".
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday: "We have no interest in a conflict with Syria”, actions in Syria intended to "thwart the potential threats from Syria and to prevent the takeover of terrorist elements near our border," he added.
