Israel strikes military targets and seizes territory in Syria offensive

Air attacks hit hundreds of sites including naval fleet and missile stores

- Jason Burke

Israeli warplanes have intensified an offensive in Syria, striking hundreds of military targets across the country and destroying entire squadrons of fighters, radar and missile systems, missile stores and much of the small Syrian navy.

Israeli troops also tightened their hold on a demilitarised zone in Syria east of the occupied Golan Heights and seized a strip of mountainous territory extending northwards.

Images on social media and broadcast by local TV networks showed the charred wreckage of at least six warships sunk or badly damaged at the Mediterranean port of Latakia.

The Israeli airstrikes began hours after the collapse of President Bashar al-Assad's regime and targeted what Israel says are suspected chemical weapons and long-range rockets.

"The IDF [Israeli military] has been operating in Syria in recent days to strike and destroy strategic capabilities that threaten the state of Israel," Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, said at a naval base in Haifa. "The navy operated... to destroy the Syrian fleet with great success." He also said that Israel's troops had been deployed in Syria to create a "sterile defence zone free of weapons and terrorist threats" in southern Syria without a permanent Israeli presence. On Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, said Israeli forces were moving to control the 150 sq mile buffer zone in Syrian territory.

Hours later Israeli media reported that troops had established positions along the Syrian side of the strategic peak, Mount Hermon, to the north of the Golan Heights.

An Israeli military official admitted yesterday that troops had advanced beyond the buffer zone and seized "some other points" but denied reports of heading deeper into Syria.