Israel has bombarded a city in northwestern Syria, creating a giant blast that even measured on the Richter scale.
According to Israel, “surface-to-surface missile depots” were struck with an explosion so big it measured as a 3.0 magnitude earthquake.
The bombing site was near the city of Tartus, claimed the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
The Israeli military has said its strikes on Syria in the wake of the fall of the Assad regime is to stop the brutal dictator’s military infrastructure and equipment “falling into terrorist hands”.
Many of the rebels that have taken over the country have links to or are members of jihadist organisations.
For example, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is a former member of al-Qaeda and knew Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of ISIS. In 2011, al-Baghdadi sent al-Jolani to set up a covert ISIS-affiliate in Syria, called the al-Nusra Front.
al-Jolani is today the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which is the the lead Syrian rebel group. HTS morphed out of the al-Nusra Front.
It is a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK and US.
Danny Danon, Israel’s UN Ambassador, said his country’s military activity is “limited and temporary”, adding that strikes were being made on immediate threats.
He added: “Israel does not intervene in the internal Syrian conflict.”
There have been reports of Israeli tanks “less than 20 miles” from Damascus, with Israeli forces having entered Syria for the first time in half a century.