Israel F-15 fighter jet taking off for an attack run in Lebanon, November 27, 2024 (Photo by Israeli Air Force).
After several days of near-continuous waves of airstrikes , the Israel Defense Forces announced Tuesday that it had destroyed 70-80% of the military capabilities of the former Syrian Arab Army, the military of the fallen Assad regime.
“Within the last 48 hours, the IDF struck most of the strategic weapons stockpiles in Syria, preventing them from falling into the hands of terrorist elements,” the army stated.
The largest part of what the IDF dubbed “Operation Bashan Arrow” was completed on Tuesday, the statement added.
“Bashan” is the biblical name of the Golan Heights region, which encompasses the Israeli-annexed part as well as the demilitarized zone on the Syrian side, which the Israeli army captured over the last days.
According to Army Radio, the massive operation to wipe out nearly all the military equipment in Syria that could potentially threaten Israel was given the green light by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi on Saturday, just before the official end of the Assad regime, and after he (Halevi) visited the Golan frontier.
A total of 350 aircraft, more than half of the Israeli Air Force’s estimated total strength, participated in the operation. The planes flew hundreds of hours over Syrian airspace, the IDF said.
A total of around 320 targets were hit throughout Syria, including in Damascus, Homs, Tartus, Latakia, Palmyra, and more.
The destroyed targets include strategic weapons such as Scud missiles, cruise missiles, surface-to-sea, surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles, UAVs, fighter jets, but also regular army equipment like attack helicopters, radars, tanks, hangars, and reportedly also intelligence infrastructure.
Following reports that the Syrian Air Force’s MiG-29 fighter jets were destroyed in the operation, Knesset Member Matan Kahana (National Unity), a former fighter pilot in the IAF, explained the significance in a lengthy post on 𝕏.
“At night I dreamed of Syrian MiG planes,” he began. “When I was a young pilot, our main threat was the Syrian aerial defense, and the MiG-29.”
“We trained a lot on flying deep into Syria to attack the aerial defense and bases of the Syrian Air Force, and air battles against the MiG-29 planes, which in those days had superior capabilities to our F-16 plane (we didn’t have the long-range radar missiles which the MiG had),” he wrote.
“No kidding, I dreamed about it at night. Even in my sleep I could recite the performance graph of the MiG-29… In the last few days, the next generation of air force fighters are making my dreams come true and destroying the Syrian air force. And I am jealous and full of appreciation,” Kahana concluded.
In another special operation as part of Bashan Arrow, the Israeli navy attacked the ports of al-Beida and Latakia, sinking or destroying at least 15 missile ships of the Syrian navy.
עוד תיעוד מההרס המטורף של הצי הסורי בדימוס בנמל לטקיה כתוצאה מהתקיפות הישראליות https://t.co/6fl7NrH4ZU pic.twitter.com/CaPgd0Ah7C
— roi kais • روعي كايس • רועי קייס (@kaisos1987) December 10, 2024
This also included dozens of sea-to-sea missiles with ranges of 80–190 kilometers. “Each missile carried significant explosive payloads, posing threats to civilian and military maritime vessels in the area,” the army stated.
Meanwhile, IDF troops on the ground continued to deploy throughout the formerly demilitarized zone along the border to secure the area, an action which continues to draw sharp criticism from Arab countries and throughout Arabic-language media sources.
For example, the Qatari al-Araby al-Jadeed outlet criticized the “occupation of Syrian lands” and argued Israel’s airstrikes were making Syria a country that is “permissible” to be violated.
The U.N. envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, implied Tuesday that the Israeli actions were contributing to instability in Syria, calling them “a very troubling development.”
Pedersen said it was “extremely important that we now don’t see any action from any international actor that destroys the possibility for this transformation in Syria to take place.”
“This needs to stop. This is extremely important,” Pederson said. “We need to continue to work for de-escalation. We need to see a stop to the Israeli attacks, and we need to make sure that the conflict in the northeast stops. And we need to make sure that there are no conflicts developing between the different armed groups.”
The new Syrian government led by the Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group so far hasn’t commented on the Israeli airstrikes and advances on the ground.
However, a former rebel commander in southern Syria told Israel’s Kan News: “Israel ruined our happiness by invading our lands,” adding that the rebel groups had assured Israel that the border would be secured by them.
