Israeli strikes destroy Syria’s weapons of war as deposed Assad complains country has fallen into ‘the hands of terrorism’

Damascus – A CBS News crew drove through a Syrian military airbase on the outskirts of the capital Damascus on Monday, and the devastation caused by Israeli airstrikes was evident. Israel has said it is committed to destroying weapons and other military equipment the deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad and his father spent half a century collecting it before it could fall into the hands of extremists.

The Israeli army has been ruthlessly pounding Syria’s military infrastructure since Assad fled to Russia earlier this month – forced out by a shock rebel offensive after a decade of civil war that had largely reached an apparent stalemate until about two weeks ago.

The damage to Assad’s old war machine is enormous. For example, one overnight attack in the coastal city of Tartus was so large that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group quoted a scientist in Turkey as saying it registered on the Richter scale as the equivalent of an earthquake of category 3.

Until Moscow’s ally Assad fled Syria, Russia maintained its only major naval base outside Russian territory in Tartus. Satellite images (below) showed most Russian ships quickly disappeared from the port of Tartus after Assad fell, but Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Monday it was still figuring out what to do with its military equipment and personnel in the country, during talks with the country’s new de facto rebel leaders.

The Israeli army, meanwhile, says it has destroyed most of Assad’s heavy weapons and air defenses. In a statement on Monday, the Israeli military said its fighter jets had in recent days “inflicted serious damage on Syria’s most strategic weapons: fighter jets and helicopters, Scud missiles, UAVs, cruise missiles, precision-guided surface-to-sea weapons.” missiles, surface-to-air missiles, surface-to-surface missiles, radars, missiles and more.”

The IDF said its strikes had destroyed “more than 90% of the ousted regime’s identified strategic surface-to-air missiles.”

The lightning takeover of Syria a week ago by the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al Sham, or HTS, has also seen Israeli forces carry out a land incursion stretching beyond the occupied Golan Heights into a previously demilitarized buffer zone within Syria.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, the head of HTS and Syria’s new de facto leader, has criticized what he described as Israel’s “uncalculated military adventures,” saying that he and his group – which, before publicly distancing themselves from the extremist ideology, an al-Qaeda affiliate – was more interested in state building than in opening a new conflict with Israel.

Targeting Syria’s military sites has also exposed deep neglect by Assad. Years of corruption and a decade of civil war had hollowed out the country’s armed forces, contributing to the collapse of his regime. Much of the hardware his troops left behind when they surrendered to the rebels or simply threw off their uniforms and walked away is old and clearly not in need of maintenance.

Assad’s office issued the first statement attributed to the deposed leader since he was forced to flee his country. In it, he claims he never considered resigning or fleeing, but took refuge at the Russian-run Hmeimim air base as the rebels closed in. December 8, the day after the HTS rebels captured the capital Damascus.

He said he ultimately left for Russia because there was nothing else he could do in Syria, and lamented the country’s fall “into the hands of terrorism.”

The statement was posted on the official channel of the Syrian Presidency via the messaging app Telegram, with a note stating that the statement was posted after several failed attempts to release the statement through Arab and international media. However, the statement was removed relatively quickly from the Telegram channel, without any explanation, before reappearing there and on the presidency’s Facebook page.

While the wider international community is still trying to figure out how to deal with HTS, which has said it will respect all Syrians’ religions and appears determined to be seen as a secular interim government – although it has not said what happens next will come before the After a three-month transition period, Israel and the US have remained largely focused on securing Assad’s weapons stockpiles.

For Israel, this marked the most intense airstrikes carried out in Syria in years, which continued on Monday, just over a week after Assad’s sudden departure.

Whoever ultimately gains control of Syria will inherit a military infrastructure that is largely in tatters. Judging from Monday’s IDF statement, which claimed the strikes were “a significant achievement for the superiority of the Israeli Air Force in the region,” that could be exactly as intended.