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In the two days since Bashar al-Assad fled in panic from his Damascus palace to an unknown locale in Moscow (BREAKING: Assad Missing As His Airplane Disappears From Radar While Fleeing Damascus, Israel has intensified its military operations in Syria, launching numerous airstrikes targeting weapons and military infrastructure. 

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In a highly coordinated series of over 300 air and naval strikes, Israel has eliminated Syria’s air force and navy. Its air defense network has ceased to exist. Ammunition dumps, communications, intelligence and logistics nodes, and defense-related factories have been destroyed.

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In addition to the airstrikes throughout the depths of Syria, Israel has also reoccupied the Syrian portion of the Golan Heights that it relinquished to UN supervision in 1974 (Netanyahu Abrogates 1974 Peace Deal With Syria and Orders IDF Into Buffer Zone). Possession of Mount Hermon, the highest location of Israel, Jordan, and Syria, increases the early warning Israel will have of missile and drone attacks. It also provides continuous surveillance of the routes used by Iran and Hezbollah to move weapons into Lebanon. This move opens a secure and unimpeded air corridor from Israel to Iran. In the past, Israeli aircraft had to avoid Syrian interceptors and surface-to-air missiles, while Syrian radar provided invaluable information to Iran. 

The major accomplishment of these strikes is the disarmament of Syria, and any future regime will have to start from scratch.

Other forces in the Syrian civil war have also used the collapse of the Assad regime as an opportunity to cripple some of the combatants. The US carried out nearly 100 airstrikes on known ISIS targets as well as targeted hits on key ISIS leaders (US Blasts ISIS Camps in Syria As Dictator Bashar Al-Assad’s Regime Falls).

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Turkey has been carrying out punishing attacks on Kurdish PKK/YPG forces. The YPG are US sponsored; Turkey considers both to be terrorist groups.

The demolition of Syria’s military capability has bought Israel several years of enhanced security and makes any direct action by Iran a decidedly high-risk affair.