Smoke rises from an Assad regime air defense position, hit by Israeli strikes on Tartous Province in western Syria, September 13, 2023

UPDATE, SEPT 14:

Israel struck Assad regime targets in western Syria on Wednesday, knocking out air defense before reportedly attacking an airbase.

A regime military official said two troops were killed and six wounded near the Mediterranean port city of Tartous. He said air defense systems were targeted in the rare daytime strike.

Russia’s naval base is in Tartous, and its Hmeimim airbase is in the neighboring Latakia Province.

At night, missiles struck “south of Hama Province” and caused material damage, according to the regime army. It gave no details of the sites.

However, an opposition source said the Israeli targeted the Shayrat military airbase in Homs Province. The base has been used for both conventional and chemical bombing by the regime, including the sarin attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib Province in April 2017.

See also Syria Daily: Russia Complains About Findings of Assad Regime’s Sarin Attack on Khan Sheikhoun

UPDATE, AUG 28:

Israel has again struck the Assad regime’s Nayrab military airbase and put the nearby Aleppo International Airport out of service.

A regime military source said the Aleppo airport’s only functioning runway was damaged by Israeli airstrikes from the direction of the Mediterranean at 4:30 a.m. The Transport Ministry’s Suleiman Khalil said, “Maintenance teams will start repair work today to return the airport to service as quickly as possible.”

Flights are being diverted to Damascus and Latakia airports.

The international airport halted operations has halted operations five times since last September after Israeli attacks. Three people were killed during an airstrike on 7 March. Two weeks later, a strike hit a suspected arms depot used by Iran-backed militias. Another attack followed in May.

The Israeli Defense Forces followed standard practice of making no comment.

UPDATE, AUG 7:

The Assad regime’s military says four of its troops were killed and four wounded in an Israeli missile strike near Damascus early Monday.

The military official said the attack caused “some material damage” about 2:20 a.m. but gave no details. He added the standard line that air defenses intercepted some of the Israeli missiles.

Regime outlets identified three of the fatalities as Maj. Issa Taha Hammoud, Lt. Lu’ayy Bassam Muhammad, and Lt. Ahmed Marei.

Unconfirmed reports said that the Israelis hit warehouses near the Damascus International Airport, and that two foreign militiamen assisting Assad forces were slain.

ORIGINAL ENTRY, JULY 19: Israeli fighter jets have carried out another set of missile strikes against Assad regime and Iranian targets near Syria’s capital Damascus.

The regime’s military said the attacks were launched from over the Israel-occupied Golan at 12:25 a.m. on Wednesday, wounding two soldiers and causing “material damage”.

It gave no details on the sites that were hit. However, the regime’s social media propagandist Vanessa Beeley said that the al-Dimas airbase, west of Damascus, was targeted.

Claims circulated in early 2022 that al-Dimas was being brought back into service by Iran as a drone training and operations center. Monitors say the base is used by Tehran’s Revolutionary Guards for the storage of weapons.

Beeley and other activists also said the regime’s Research and Development Center in west Damascus was struck, and that missiles were fired on Damascus International Airport, where both the regime and Iranian militaries have facilities.

Israel has regularly carried out missiles since the start of the mass protests against the Assad regime in 2011. The strikes initially sought to limit Iranian transfer of weapons and missiles to the regime. However, with Tehran propping up Assad and the regime military, Israel has escalated the pressure on Iran to curb or even end its presence in Syria.

Wednesday’s airstrikes were the first since July 6, which were also on sites near Damascus.

See also UPDATES: Israel Strikes Targets Near Damascus