Eleven killed in Israeli strike on weapons depot near Damascus, says war monitor

An Israeli air strike on a weapons depot near Damascus has killed 11 people, mostly civilians, according to a war monitor, the latest in hundreds of strikes targeting Syria's military capabilities after its former president Bashar Al Assad was deposed.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the depot, near the industrial town of Adra, north-east of the capital, was storing weapons that had belonged to the Assad regime.

The Israeli military has not yet commented on the strike on Sunday, but says its targets in Syria are Iran-backed groups that backed Mr Al Assad.

Adra residents confirmed the explosion. Adra resident Khaled Ghazi previously told The National that such weapons stockpiles had become open to the public after the overthrow of the Assad regime.

“There are many weapons warehouses here that haven’t been secured despite our attempts to inform authorities and the Military Operations Command,” Mr Ghazi said.

Although Israel has struck Syria many times since its civil war broke out in 2011, attacks have stepped up significantly since Mr Al Assad's fall to rebels led by the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham group, this month.

One strike on the Mediterranean port of Tartus is thought to have detonated enough ammunition to register a 3.1 magnitude earthquake 10km off the coast.

Israeli troops also moved into a buffer zone in the occupied Golan Heights when Mr Al Assad fled to Russia on December 8, saying its troops and tanks were there for “defence”.

As well as targeting Iran-backed groups that backed the Assad regime, Israel also wants to remove any threat posed by weapons in Syria. The country is now governed by HTS, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by the US, UN Security Council and EU.

HTS has demanded that Israel cease its strikes.