File image.
A massive blast rocked the outskirts of the town of Ma’arrat Misrin in the northern countryside of Idlib in northern Syria on July 24, wounding or killing more than 100 people.
Syrian authorities remained silent on the causes of the blast, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the explosion emitted from an ammunition depot of the Turkistan Islamic Party, a formation mainly made up of Chinese Uyghurs which dissolved itself and joined the ranks of the new Syrian military after the fall of the Assad regime.
The London-based monitoring group said that 12 people were killed and 107 others were wounded by the blast. However, the Syrian Health Ministry said that just six were killed and over 140 others were injured.
Videos posted to social networks showed a small fire prior to the blast, which later wiped out very much everything in its vicinity.
The blast near Ma’arrat Misrin was the most recent in a series of explosions that rocked multiple bases and ammunition depots of the Syrian military in recent months.
Just a day earlier, a very similar massive blast rocked the 64th Regiment Base close to the town of Shinshar in the southern countryside of Homs in central Syria.
Activists blamed the blasts in Ma’arrat Misrin and Shinshar on Israeli strikes. Some even noted that a similar blast rocked the 46th Regiment Base in the western countryside of Aleppo in the north of the country on July 8, also blaming it on Israel. Multiple main battle tanks were reportedly destroyed there, including at least one T-90 from the arsenal of the former military.
While there is no evidence indicating that the recent blasts were caused by Israeli strikes, what is unfolding in Syria is in line with Israel’s “war-between-the-wars” policy.
The Israeli term war-between-the-war refers to an inter-war campaign done through the Israeli military and the intelligence service to prevent the country’s enemies from developing capabilities that will enable them to violate Israel’s balance of deterrence through detecting and selectively destroying emerging threats to the country’s security.
Israel followed this policy towards the former Syrian military, targeting its capabilities overtly and covertly for over a decade until the regime of former President Bashar al-Assad collapsed.
Despite engaging in talks with Syria’s Islamist-led interim government, Israel remains extremely cautious towards it. This became clear earlier this month when Israel launched strikes on the Syrian military and security forces in defense of the Druze in the southern governorate of al-Suwayda. In fact, Israel went as far as targeting the presidential palace and ministry of defense in the capital, Damascus.
Interestingly, the last two blasts came following reports suggesting that Syria asked its key ally, Turkey, to provide military support, including armament and training, in the aftermath of the fighting in al-Suwaday.
Israel, which has already warned that it won’t accept an enlarged Turkish military presence in the country, will not likely allow this to happen.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence
NOW hosted at southfront.press
Previously, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.org.
The .org domain name had been blocked by the US (NATO) (https://southfront.press/southfront-org-blocked-by-u-s-controlled-global-internet-supervisor/) globally, outlawed and without any explanation
Back before that, from 2013 to 2015, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.com
