Damascus, Dec 7, (dpa/GNA) – Israeli airstrikes hit the container yard at the Syrian port of Latakia early on Tuesday, the first such attack targeting that site, state media and a monitor group said.
“This is the first time such strikes hit containers inside the Latakia port. The strikes mainly targeted containers carrying weapons to pro-Iranian militias that arrived from Iran a few hours before the strike took place,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told dpa.
According to the Observatory’s count, it was the 27th Israeli attack on Syrian territories this year.
The state-run Syrian News Agency (SANA), citing a military source, said “the Israeli occupation entity carried out a missile attack targeting the container yard in Latakia commercial port,” at around 1:23 am on Tuesday (2323 GMT on Monday).
It added that the attack on the port’s container yard set a number of containers ablaze. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Latakia Governor Amer Ismail Hilal told SANA, that “firefighting teams were able to put out the fires that broke out in the port’s container yard as a result of the Israeli aggression.”
Syrian television reported that at least five loud explosions were heard in the area and showed pictures of a large fire in the container yard.
Israeli strikes on Syria are seen as an attempt to prevent Iran from building its military influence in the region.
On November 24, state media reported that two civilians were killed and six soldiers were wounded in Israeli strikes which targeted central Syria.
GNA