Israeli strikes destroy Syrian war weapons, and the deposed Assad regrets the country’s fall into “the hands of terrorism”

Damascus – A CBS News team passed through a Syrian military air base on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus, on Monday, and the devastation caused by Israeli airstrikes was abundantly clear. Israel said it was determined to destroy weapons and other military equipment Deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad His father spent half a century collecting it, before it fell into the hands of extremists.

The Israeli military has relentlessly bombed Syrian military infrastructure since Assad fled to Russia earlier this month, following a surprise attack by rebels after a decade-long civil war that, until about two weeks ago, had largely reached an apparent stalemate.

The damage to Assad’s ancient war machine was astonishing. For example, one overnight strike in the coastal city of Tartous was so massive that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted a scientist in Turkey as saying it registered on the Richter scale as the equivalent of a Category 3 earthquake.

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 disappearing from the port of Tartus quickly after the fall of Assad, but the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday that it was still considering what to do about its military equipment and personnel in the country, during the talks. With the new rebel rulers in the country.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military says it has destroyed most of Assad’s heavy weapons and air defenses. In a statement issued on Monday, the Israeli military said that its fighter jets in recent days “caused significant damage to Syria’s most strategic weapons: fighter jets, helicopters, Scud missiles, drones, cruise missiles, and precision-guided surface-to-sea missiles.” Missiles, surface-to-air missiles, surface-to-surface missiles, radars, missiles, etc.

The Israeli army said that its raids destroyed “more than 90% of the ousted regime’s designated strategic surface-to-air missiles.”

The lightning takeover of Syria a week ago by the rebel group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, also saw Israeli forces conduct a ground incursion extending across the occupied Golan Heights region into a formerly demilitarized buffer zone inside Syria.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, head of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and Syria’s new de facto leader, criticized what he described as Israel’s “uncalculated military adventures” and said he and his group – which, before it publicly distanced itself from extremist ideology, was a terrorist group. Al-Qaeda affiliate – was more interested in building a state than opening another conflict with Israel.

The targeting of Syrian military sites also revealed deep negligence on Assad’s part. Years of corruption and a decade of civil war hollowed out the country’s armed forces, contributing to the collapse of his regime. Much of the equipment his forces left behind when they surrendered to the rebels or simply ditched their uniforms and fled, is old and clearly poorly maintained.

Al-Assad’s office issued the first statement attributed to the ousted president 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 air base at Hmeimim as rebels approached, and when that facility came under sustained drone attack, he says an evacuation was ordered on December 8, the next day. The rebels of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham seized the capital, Damascus.

He said he eventually left for Russia because there was nothing else he could do in Syria, expressing his regret that the country had fallen “into the hands of terrorism.”

The statement was published on the official channel of the Syrian Presidency on the Telegram messaging application, with a note stating that it was published after several failed attempts to publish it through Arab and international media. But the statement was deleted relatively quickly from the Telegram channel, without any explanation, before it appeared again there and on the presidency’s Facebook page.

While the wider international community is still trying to figure out how to deal with Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, which has said it will respect Syrians of all faiths, it seems determined to be seen as an interim secular administration – although it has not said what will happen next. For the Syrians. After a three-month transition period – Israel and the United States remained largely focused on securing Assad’s stored weapons.

For Israel, that meant carrying out the most aggressive air strikes in Syria in years, continuing on Monday, just over a week after Assad’s sudden departure.

Whoever ends up controlling Syria will inherit a military infrastructure that is largely in tatters. Judging by the IDF’s statement on Monday, in which it claimed its strikes marked “a significant achievement of IAF superiority in the region,” that may be exactly what was intended.

Good privilege

Imtiaz Tayyab is a CBS News correspondent based in London who reports for all platforms, including CBS Evening News, CBS Mornings, CBS Sunday Morning and CBS News 24/7. He has extensive experience reporting on major global flashpoints, including the Middle East and the war on terrorism.