Israel Has Launched More Airstrikes On Syria, Causing A Blast As Strong As A Magnitude 3.0 Earthquake
The explosion was so big that it reportedly registered on seismic monitors as the equivalent of a 3.0 magnitude earthquake.
A week after Syrian rebels toppled President Bashar al-Assad, Israel is continuing to bomb military and air defense sites in Syria, dropping what has been called an "earthquake bomb" in the coastal city of Tartus.
Footage on social media showed the blast caused a huge orange flash, followed by multiple explosion and a huge mushroom cloud in the sky.
The explosion was so big that it reportedly registered on seismic monitors as the equivalent of a magnitude 3.0 earthquake.
It was the heaviest strikes in Syria's coastal region since 2012, when Israel began its airstrikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor based in the UK.
The Observatory said that Israel had launched 18 consecutive airstrikes targeting air defense units and missile depots along the Syrian coast.
The airstrikes detonated missiles in warehouses that led to secondary explosions.
The power of the blasts, which began after midnight and continued until almost 6 am, shattered glass and stripped the leaves off trees in the village of Bmalkah in the hills above Tartus, according to AFP.
"It was like an earthquake. All the windows in my house were blown out," 28-year-old Ibrahim Ahmed told AFP.
"The village did not sleep last night. The kids were crying," another man told AFP.
The Observatory said no casualties have been reported.
Since Syria was liberated on Dec. 8, Israel has been pounding Syria with bombs, saying it is to keep military equipment out of the hands of "extremists."
The Observatory said Israel has struck the country at least 473 times since Dec. 8, destroying its navy and dozens of airbases, ammunition depot and other equipment.
Israel has also pushed further beyond a buffer zone between the two countries and annexed parts of Syria's land.
On Sunday, Dec. 15, the parliament approved Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to double the population in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights by expanding Israeli settlements.
Netanyahu has declared Syria as the "fourth warfront" in its war, along with the Gaza Strip, Israeli-occupied West Bank and Lebanon.
Cherry Mohamed
Isha Jain
Isha Jain
