Damascus, Syria: In the second such attack on the critical facility this month, Israeli missiles fired from the Mediterranean Sea struck the Syrian port of Latakia early Tuesday, setting a container terminal on fire, Syrian state media reported.
It is also a rare target of the port handling the most imports for Syria, which has been ravaged by a decades-long civil war and sanctions imposed by the West.
State news agency SANA quoted a military official as saying that Israeli missiles fired from west of Latakia opened fire on the port’s container terminal, causing fire that caused major damage. An unidentified official said firefighters had been controlling the blaze for about an hour after the attack.
Syrian state-run al-Ikhbariya TV showed footage of flames and smoke rising from the terminal. It reported damage to residential buildings, a hospital, shops and some tourist sites near the port.
According to SANA, there were no immediate reports of casualties from the missile strikes activating the Syrian air defence.
A similar attack took place on 7 December, when Israeli warplanes targeted a container terminal, causing fire and explosions.
A reporter for al-Ikhbariya TV in the area said Tuesday’s attack appeared to be major and explosions could be heard in Tartus, another coastal town more than 80 kilometers (about 50 miles) away. The reporter said an ambulance was dispatched to the scene but it was not clear whether there were any casualties.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war watchdog group, said at the time that the December 7 airstrikes affected an arms shipment for Iran-backed fighters.
There was no comment from the Israeli military, which has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria during its 10-year civil war, but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.
The last few attacks have targeted the main airport in the Syrian capital Damascus.
Israel has admitted it targets militias affiliated with Iran, such as the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group, which has fighters in Syria. It says it attacked a consignment of weapons believed to be bound to the militia.
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