Israel’s Air Force Makes 310 Strikes on Military Targets in Syria

Unsurprisingly, Israel has been quick to destroy both Assad’s chemical weapons plants and his stores of chemical weapons, relieving the world of the worry that they might be used not only against Israel and against the Syrian people, but also against Western countries, should they fall into the hands of ISIS. Even before the Biden administration announced that it would work with “partners in the area” to destroy “chemical weapons,” the IDF was already completing that task.

That was their first target, on Sunday, Dec. 8. A day later, the IDF destroyed the Assad regime’s storage sites housing long-range missiles, both surface-to-surface and air-to-surface, and its weapons research facilities, and hit Syria’s three main military airbases, destroying many dozens of fighter jets and helicopters. It also hit weapons production and research facilities. More on these strikes can be found here: “As Assad ousted, Israeli jets destroy his deadly arsenals before they fall to rebels,” Times of Israel, December 8, 2024:

Israeli Air Force fighter jets on Sunday struck dozens of targets across Syria, taking out weaponry that Israel feared could fall into the hands of hostile forces in light of the dramatic fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime some two weeks into a lightning offensive by rebel groups.

Also on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces seized control of a buffer zone between the Israel-Syria border in the Golan Heights, in what it described as a temporary defensive measure.

While Qatar, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia have all denounced what they describe as a “land grab,” Israel has made clear that the IDF’s presence in the buffer zone is “limited and temporary,” and will end once it is clear that the new regime in Syria is not a threat. The IDF has no intention of remaining in that buffer zone.

In sum, these were the results of IAF attacks from Saturday to early Monday: the destruction of all chemical weapons stores and production plants, weapons research offices, missile storehouses and manufacturing plants.

By Tuesday, the IAF had hit a total of 310 targets, which included the military airbases at Homs, Qamishli and Damascus, as well as weapons depots and other strategic military sites. On Tuesday morning, the IAF destroyed Syria’s navy at Latakia. Now Syria is essentially without either an air force or a navy; both have been blown to smithereens.

The Israelis, of course, have made themselves, and everyone else threatened by Islamic fundamentalists, safer by destroying these weapons that could, at some future time, fall into the hands of ISIS and similar groups. The Israelis cannot bet their security on the possibility that Mohamed al-Jolani is in truth a moderate as he now claims to be, or other members of the Hayat Tahrir al-Shams jihad group are similarly moderate. Israel cannot assume that ISIS, which has a continuing presence in eastern Syria, would not succeed in seizing some of the weapons left behind by Assad’s disintegrating forces and use them against Israel. In the chaos and confusion, the IDF acted sensibly to remove as much of the potential threat from Syria as it possibly could. It has now struck military sites inside Syria 310 times. These include the Qamishli air base in northeast Syria, the Shinshar base in the countryside of Homs, and the Aqrba airport southwest of the capital Damascus. The air force has also reportedly carried out several strikes on a research center on the outskirts of Damascus and a center for electronic warfare near the Sayeda Zainab area of the capital.

The IDF estimates that, as of early on Tuesday, some 70%-80% of the capabilities of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s military have been destroyed. And on Tuesday, too, the Israeli Air Force sank Syria’s navy at Latakia.

Let the heathen rage. The IDF has made the world safer.