Strong Explosions Felt In Damascus After Israeli Bombardment

Loud explosions were heard in Damascus today, according to the France-Presse news agency (AFP), shortly after a non-governmental organization (NGO) reported that Israel had launched 250 strikes against Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that Israel had carried out around 250 bombings against Syria since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday.

The UK-based NGO, which has a vast network of informants in Syria, said that Israel was targeting key military installations in order to prevent them from falling into rebel hands.

The SOHR said that Tel Aviv had bombed airports, radars, weapons and ammunition depots, military research centers and damaged Syrian Navy ships by attacking an air defense near the Mediterranean port of Latakia (northwest).

On Monday, the OSDH had already said that Israeli aircraft had bombed military vessels in Latakia and ammunition depots in several locations on the outskirts of the city.

The organization indicated that "Israeli warplanes launched attacks on Syrian warships in the port of Latakia and on weapons depots of the former regime forces" on the outskirts of the city.

The director of the OSDH, Rami Abdel Rahman, said that Israel intends to destroy the "military power" of the Assad government, which was overthrown on Sunday by a coalition of Islamist rebel groups.

The official Israeli army radio assured that "Israel is destroying Syrian military vessels in the port of Latakia".

The OSDH said that other military targets of the army of the deposed Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, on the outskirts of Damascus and other cities in the country, such as Mahaja, in the north of the province of Daraa (south), were also attacked on Monday by Israeli military aircraft.

The NGO said that "Israel has destroyed all the fighter jets at the airports, as well as some radars and weapons depots, since Bashar al-Assad fled Syria after the fall of the regime".

Assad left Syria and sought asylum in Russia, after, on Sunday, a rebel coalition led by the Organization for the Liberation of the Levant (HTS, in Arabic) took control of the Syrian capital in a lightning offensive lasting 12 days.