Israeli jets obliterate Syrian weapon stockpiles in devastating weekend blitz

The Israeli military carried out overnight air raids on Syrian weapons warehouses, missile depots and mountain tunnels in a major offensive targeting the military stockpile of ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad, a local monitoring group reported.The Israeli Defense Force blasted scores of targets from Saturday evening to Sunday morning in an all-out blitz meant to “destroy the arsenal of the former regime,” reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.Israel — which has said such moves are necessary to ensure the weapons don’t fall in terrorist enemy hands — conducted at least 75 strikes throughout the night, the Observatory said.The targets contained “large missiles, ammunition, mortar shells and military equipment,” and at least 35 strikes used vacuum missiles designed to wreck tunnels deep within the mountains.In total, Israeli jets have slammed Syria with more than 450 airstrikes since Islamic rebels surged down the country and finally marched into the capital city of Damascus a week ago.Israel has carried out strikes against Iran-backed targets in Syria for years, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolved a longstanding peace agreement and captured large swaths of the eastern buffer zone when government troops began to yield their bases to rebel forces.In addition to striking targets near Lebanon and within Damascus itself, Israel has laid waste to Syria’s navy and captured large swaths of territory in the buffer zone along its eastern border.Civilians have fled their villages or have been forced to evacuate as Israel pushes deeper into the Syrian territory, the Observatory reported, and Ahmed al-Shara, the leader of the dominant rebel coalition, told local media the attacks are “unwarranted.”Netanyahu has said the swift action is necessary to “ensure that no hostile force embeds itself right next to the border of Israel” and keep tools of Israel’s destruction — including chemical weapons — from falling into the wro...