At least two people were injured early on Thursday in an overnight strike on the Syrian port of Latakia, which was attributed to Israel. Syrian state media said the attack on the port caused a fire, while other reports claimed the target was a weapons storage facility at the entrance to the port city and that serious damage was caused to homes in the area.
Hours earlier, Syrian President Bashar al Assad had imposed restrictions on Iran-backed militias' activities in his country, according to a report in the UK-based Syrian opposition site the Observatory for Human Rights. According to the report, the restrictions were imposed fearing Israeli attacks.
The site reported that Assad fears the break-out of war with Israel after previously limiting the scope of their operations along the Syrian-Israeli border on the Golan Heights. It claimed the Damascus regime issued military orders, "in agreement with the Russians," to limit Hezbollah and other pro-Iranian militias in villages near Damascus and Homs including the Homs desert that could be used to launch drones at Israel.
A strike on the Syrian port city Latakia, attributed to Israel
Unnamed sources quoted in the report claimed the regime was inspecting cars with Lebanese license plates and surveying people arriving from Lebanon, out of concern that Syrian territory would be used to attack Israel. The Observatory said thousands of pro-Iranian militias, including Hezbollah were in Syria and that Israel may take advantage of their presence to strike and to drag Syria into a war it has no interest in.
The sources also said that the Syrian military's 4th division, under the command of Assad's brother Maher, issued strict orders not to attack the Golan Heights and "ignite" conflict with Israel. They said roadblocks were keeping regime forces some 15 kilometers (9 miles) away from the border with Israel and Russian forces were positioned at 17 points along the border to reduce friction while pro-Iranian militia sites were being patrolled by joint Syrian and Russian forces in a number of locations around Syria, to keep an eye on them.
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