Satellite imagery of the Syrian commercial Mediterranean port at Latakia shows the aftermath of an airstrike on Tuesday attributed to Israel, and of "astonishingly precise" attacks, The War Zone reported on Wednesday.

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Analyzing images provided of the port from Planet Labs, the report noted that the strikes, which targeted arms and munitions shipments according to the report, sparked a large fire at the facility, which required several hours to bring under control by local firefighters.

"The satellite image shows damage to multiple shipping containers, seemingly as the result of four separate weapons impacts in different parts of the facility," the report stated.

"As of today, palls of smoke were still visible overhead the port, although the overall damage appeared to be generally restricted to the container terminal itself, with no apparent harm done to the area immediately surrounding the port. Surprisingly little is visible in terms of cratering, too. The attack looks like it was astonishingly precise, striking individual or small groups of containers only," it said.

Aftermath of Israel's bombardment of Syrian port seen in satellite imagery:https://t.co/TdwvoZFCng

— The War Zone (@thewarzonewire) December 30, 2021

Former Israeli national security adviser Chuck Freilich told The Wall Street Journal that "If the strikes in Latakia were, indeed, carried out by Israel, they were presumably designed mostly to prevent the buildup of [the] Iranian's capabilities in Syria," adding that "there is a secondary benefit of reminding the Iranians that Israel can strike at any time."

On Tuesday, Syrian state media said an Israeli missile strike on the container yard of Syria's main commercial port caused fires and extensive damage.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Syria's military said Israeli warplanes fired missiles on the port of the coastal city of Latakia early Tuesday without inflicting any human losses.

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Syrian state TV reported that five explosions were heard in the port and a huge fire erupted in the containers' area. The governor of the Latakia province, Amer Ismail Hilal, said that firefighting teams were able to control the blaze.

It was a rare attack on the port of Latakia, a vital facility where much of Syria's imports are brought into the war-torn country.

Israel continues its campaign against Iran and #Hezbollah as it reportedly targeted the port of Latakia with airstrikes this evening. #Syria pic.twitter.com/VZosq0b3xQ

— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) December 7, 2021

According to Israel's Kan 11 News, weapons earmarked for Hezbollah were being stored in the containers.

On Tuesday afternoon, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, "We are pushing back the evil forces of the region day and night; we won't stop for one second."

He added: "We do this almost on a daily basis. We will continue to act against destructive forces. We will persist, we will never grow weary."

Israel has staged hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled Syria over the years but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations. Some of the strikes in the past had targeted the main airport in the capital Damascus.

Israel has acknowledged, however, that it targets the bases of Iran-allied militias, such as Lebanon's Hezbollah terrorist group that has fighters deployed in Syria. It says it attacks arms shipments believed to be bound for the militias.

Hezbollah is fighting on the side of Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces in the decade-old civil war.

Israel says Iran's presence on its northern frontier is a red line, justifying its strikes on facilities and weapons inside Syria.

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Several buildings collapsed as a result of the blast which shook the city in Idlib province, near a road between the coastal city of Latakia and city of Aleppo.

The city has been a target of bombardment by the Russian air force and the Syrian army in recent weeks. Most of its inhabitants have fled to the safety of areas close to the Turkish border, residents and local officials say.

In a separate incident, Syrian state-run media reported a bomb had killed a civilian and wounded five other people in a Damascus neighborhood.

The official SANA news agency says the bomb had been placed in a car in the Nahr Aysheh district in southern Damascus and killed the driver when it detonated. The agency says an investigation is underway.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.

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Israeli Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin arrived in Moscow on Thursday to brief Russian officials on the incident, in which a Russian Ilyushin 20 reconnaissance aircraft was accidentally ‎shot down by Syrian fire some 35 kilometers (22 ‎‎miles) off the coast of ‎Latakia as it was returning to a nearby Russian base, resulting in the ‎deaths of the 15-man crew.

The incident took place on the heels of an Israeli missile strike on Iranian assets in Latakia, with Syrian air defenses mistaking the Russian plane for an Israeli one. This prompted Russia to blame Israel indirectly for the incident, accusing Israel of creating dangerous conditions by failing to give it sufficient advance notice. While Israel has admitted that it bombed the area shortly beforehand to prevent the shipment of sensitive weapon systems to the Hezbollah terrorist group, it has insisted that its jets were nowhere near the area when the Russian aircraft was downed.

During Norkin's one-day visit to Russia, he briefed his Russian counterpart and other top officials on the findings from the Israeli inquiry.

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said the meetings were held in a "good atmosphere" and the two sides engaged in "professional and frank dialogue on various matters, emphasizing the interests of both countries and the continued use of the deconfliction mechanism."

But according to Al-Mayadeen,  the visit failed to defuse the crisis and Russia rejected the Israeli conclusion that Syrian forces were to blame for the incident.

The report claimed that the IDF concluded that the Russians did have sufficient advance notice but failed to divert the plane from harm's way after it had completed a surveillance mission on a French naval vessel. The fact that President Vladimir Putin did not meet with Norkin underscored Russia's displeasure with the Israeli inquiry, the Lebanese station said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement Thursday elaborating on a telephone conversation he had with Putin on Tuesday.

"I told him that the root of the problem is Iran's attempt to use Syrian territory for attacks against Israel and to arm our enemies, such as Hezbollah. I told him that we have the right of self-defense. There is also very great importance to maintaining the security coordination between Israel and Russia," Netanyahu said.

Speaking with Army Radio Thursday, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman stressed that Israel would not halt its strikes on Iranian assets in Syria.

"We will do whatever is necessary to safeguard the security of Israel's citizens ... and we will not hold these discussions over the airwaves," he said.

But when pressed during the interview, Lieberman avoided asserting Israeli "freedom of action" over Syria, a term he has used in the past.

The Russian Embassy in Tel Aviv issued more criticism of Israel on Thursday.

"Moscow views as irresponsible and unfriendly actions of Israeli Air Force, which exposed Russian Il-20 aircraft to danger and led to the deaths of 15 servicemen," it tweeted, and added that Russia would "take all necessary measures to eliminate the threat to life and security of our military fighting against terrorism."

Israel has struck Syria dozens of times during the seven-year Syrian civil war to prevent the transfer of sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah and other Iranian allies. Russia has largely overlooked the sorties, which the Israelis say pose no direct threat to Moscow's ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Israeli officials told Arabic daily A-Sharq al-Awsat on Thursday that Iran was under the false impression that Israel would not strike its assets near Latakia because of the massive Russian presence nearby.

Meanwhile, according to media reports in Cyprus, Russia has placed restrictions on the airspace and waters around the island. According to those reports, Russia informed the authorities in Cyprus that it would carry out significant military operations in the area in the coming days, presumably in response to the incident.

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