New Delhi: At least 75 Indians have been evacuated from war-hit Syria where the rebels have toppled the Bashar al-Assad government, the External Affairs Ministry of India revealed late Tuesday night. The Indian nationals had safely crossed to Lebanon. They would fly back to India in commercial flights, the Ministry stated.
Among the Indian evacuees, there are 44 ‘zaireen’ (pilgrims) from Jammu and Kashmir. These pilgrims were stranded at Saida Zainab. Earlier, the Indian nationals in Syria had requested for evacuation to the ministry, which also assessed the security situation before arriving at the decision. The Indian embassies in Damascus and Beirut coordinated the evacuation.
In its bid to neutralise military assets in Syria after the fall of Assad regime, Israel on Tuesday reportedly confirmed that it had carried out multiple attacks on Syria’s naval fleet.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, as reported by the BBC, its ships struck the ports at Al-Bayda and Latakia on Monday night. According to reports, 15 vessels were docked at these ports during the attacks.
The IDF also said its warplanes had conducted more than 350 air strikes on targets across Syria, while moving ground forces into the demilitarised buffer zone between Syria and the occupied Golan Heights, reported the BCC.
For the first time in about 50 years, Israel had launched airstrikes at military targets across Syria and deployed ground troops both into and beyond a demilitarized buffer zone.
Over the past two days, the Israeli military had reportedly carried out about 480 strikes across the country hitting most of Syria’s strategic weapon stockpiles. Defense Minister Israel Katz hailed the Israeli navy’s strike on Syrian fleet as a ‘great success.’
“The collapse of the Syrian regime is a direct result of the severe blows with which we have struck Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had stated at a press conference on Monday, adding that the ‘axis had not disappeared’ and ‘was changing the face of Middle East.’
According to reports, Israel was bombing Syrian military facilities housing chemical weapons stocks and long-range missiles. Of the 480 strikes carried out by the Israeli Air Force, about 350 were manned aircraft strikes. The attacks targeted airfields, anti-aircraft batteries, missiles, drones, fighter jets, tanks and weapon production sites in Damascus, Homs, Tartus, Latakia and Palmyra, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed. The rest of the strikes targeted weapons depots, military structures, launchers and firing positions on the ground.
Meanwhile, several Arab states have accused Israel of exploiting the turmoil and instability in Syria. They alleged that Israel was trying to execute a land grab taking advantage of the situation.
The Arab League, a grouping of Arab nations, said Israel was “taking advantage of the developments in the internal situation in Syria.” Egypt said Israel’s moves “constitute an exploitation of the state of fluidity and vacuum… to occupy more Syrian territories,” reported the CNN.