'Colossal' explosions have lit up the skies over Syria as Israeli attacks reportedly struck military installations. Described as the most intense strikes in the region in over ten years, the blasts were so powerful that they were registered on earthquake sensors. A war monitor group said that Israeli airstrikes hit military installations in Syria's coastal Tartus region.
Dramatic video footage captured a giant mushroom-shaped fireball lighting up the night sky of Syria, alongside thunderous booms. The massive strikes were allegedly aimed at a weapons depot in the area, according to the war monitoring group. The powerful explosion caused tremors that registered as a 3.0 magnitude earthquake on nearby seismic detectors.
Biggest Blast Rocks Syria
"Israeli warplanes launched strikes" targeting a series of sites including air defense units and "surface-to-surface missile depots," according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The group described these as "the heaviest strikes in Syria's coastal region since the start of strikes in 2012."
Tartus, home to one of Russia's two military bases in Syria, has served as both a naval hub and an ammunition depot.
The massive blast, along with subsequent explosions, suggests a massive stockpile of weapons may have been present at the site.
Dramatic videos shared on social media captured a huge bright flash lighting up the sky, followed by multiple detonations that formed a towering mushroom cloud of smoke.
Earlier today, Russia's foreign ministry announced the evacuation of some diplomatic staff from Syria, just a week after the overthrow of the country's dictator, Bashar al-Assad.
Researcher Richard Cordaro said that the explosion was detected by a magnetometer station located 820 kilometers away in Iznik, western Turkey. He also said that the signal traveled almost twice as fast as those produced by typical earthquakes.
The Soviet Union first established a naval military base in Tartus in 1971. Until 2017, this facility was classified as a "Material-Technical Support Point" rather than a full-fledged base and remains Russia's sole access point to the Mediterranean.
The base played a crucial role in delivering arms and supplies during Russia's intervention in the Syrian civil war in 2015. In 2017, President Vladimir Putin ordered its expansion after Bashar al-Assad granted Russia a 49-year lease on the facility at no cost, in return for aiding his regime's survival.
Russia, the Original Target
In addition to Tartus, Russia repurposed a civilian airport near Latakia into the Hmeimim airbase in 2015. This facility is considered highly secure, equipped with defensive perimeters and air defense systems capable of covering a range of up to 250 kilometers (155 miles), according to Russian state media.
While Russia does not disclose troop deployment numbers, analysts believe the number of personnel at these bases has dropped significantly since the start of Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
On Wednesday, a Kremlin spokesperson said that Moscow was in communication with Syria's new authorities about the future of its bases. However, the recent airstrikes have raised further uncertainty about the fate of Russian assets in the region, including the Hmeimim airfield.
After an 11-day offensive, a coalition of rebels led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Russia with his family. Throughout the Syrian civil war, Russia had been one of Assad's key allies, providing ground forces and critical air support starting in 2015 to counter rebel advances and reinforce his regime.
Russian intelligence reportedly had to convince the former president to leave the country, warning him that he would lose the battle as opposition forces advanced toward Damascus.
