EXPLOSIONS IN PORT LATAKIA (Syria)

EXPLOSIONS IN PORT LATAKIA (Syria)

 

July 14/13: Whodunnit? Here’s what we know: on July 5/13, the Syrian port city of Latakia experienced major explosions at an arms depot. Israel hasn’t taken responsibility for the attack, but many sources attribute it to them. Initial reports suggested that the Israeli air force flew from bases in Turkey to launch the strike, flying over the Mediterranean and staying out of Syrian air space. Now, reports have surfaced that the strike was launched from a Dolphin Class submarine offshore.

The target of the strike appears to be new shipments of P-800 Yakhont supersonic anti-ship and strike missiles. The missiles were delivered by Russia, and create a potent barrier to foreign naval blockades or interventions, while protecting Russia’s Syrian naval base in Tartus. The flip side is that their 180 mile range, accuracy and flight profile can threaten most of Israel from inside Syrian territory. With Iran’s Hezbollah foreign legion playing a significant role for the Assad regime in Syria’s civil war, weapon transfers are more or less expected. Syria is known to have transferred anti-ship missiles to Hezbollah before, hence Israel’s solution of eliminating the weapons.

The IAF’s favorite weapon for this sort of thing is their Delilah cruise missile . If a submarine conducted the strike, however, it would use a conventional version of the Popeye Turbo cruise missile