Bashar al Assad has fled from his palace in Damascus to an unknown location in Moscow in the past two days. Israel has intensified military operations in Syria by launching numerous airstrikes that target weapons and military infrastructure.
Israel eliminated Syria’s navy and air force in a coordinated series of more than 300 air and maritime strikes. Israel’s air defense system has been destroyed. Ammunition dumps and factories related to defense, as well as communications, intelligence, and logistics nodes, have all been destroyed.
Israel has reoccupied not only the Syrian part of the Golan Heights but also the entire Syrian territory of the Golan Heights that was handed over to UN supervision back in 1974. The possession of Mount Hermon – the highest point in Israel, Jordan, and Syria – will increase Israel’s ability to detect drone and missile attacks early. This allows for continuous monitoring of the routes that Hezbollah and Iran use to transport weapons into Lebanon. This opens up a safe and unhindered air corridor between Israel and Iran. In the past Israeli aircraft were forced to avoid Syrian surface-to-air missiles and interceptors while Syrian radar gave Iran valuable information.
These strikes have disarmed Syria and will require any future regime to start over.
The collapse of the Assad government has also been used by other forces to weaken some of the fighters in the Syrian Civil War. US airstrikes targeted ISIS leaders and carried out more than 100 strikes on ISIS targets.
Turkey has carried out punishing strikes against Kurdish PKK/YPG troops. Both the YPG and PKK are US-sponsored; Turkey views both as terrorist groups.
Israel has gained several years in security thanks to the destruction of Syria’s military capabilities. Any direct action from Iran is now a high-risk endeavor.
