by Steve Sweeney
International editor

AT LEAST two people have died as a result of Tuesday’s Israeli bombing of the Syrian port of Latakia, according to a British-based war monitoring group.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said yesterday that two members of what it described as “a pro-regime militia” had been killed.

“They had suffered serious wounds and succumbed to their injuries” in hospital in Latakia the day after the attack, the group said.

The British-government-funded organisation is seen as supportive of opposition to the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad.

But even it conceded that at least 130 Syrians have been killed by Israeli missiles in 30 air strikes this year alone.

The bombing of the port in Latakia, a city on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, caused extensive damage.

State media reported that the missiles had struck containers loaded with “engine oil and spare parts for cars and other vehicles.”

Israel refused to be drawn on the bombing, with a military spokesman saying: “We don’t comment on foreign reports.”

Defence Minister Benny Gantz said that Tel Aviv would not allow Iran to use Syria to threaten Israel, but he said nothing specifically about the bombing of Latakia.

“Israel will not allow Iran to funnel balance-breaching weapons to its proxies and threaten our citizens,” he said.

But Tehran hit back, describing the air strikes as “inhumane and immoral” and an example of Israel’s “provocation of crisis in the region.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh accused Israel of “making a mockery of all international laws, regulations and norms by carrying out repeated attacks on Syrian territory on false pretexts.”

Syria has previously written to United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres urging the world body “to take firm and immediate measures to prevent the repeated Israeli attacks against Syria.”

Lebanon has also complained to the UN about Tel Aviv’s “blatant violation” of its air space under security council resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

It is the second time in a month that Israel has bombed Latakia. 

Speculation is mounting over possible retaliatory action by Syria, which has been subjected to hundreds of air strikes by Israel since war broke out in the country in 2011.

In January, at least 57 people were killed in eastern Syria in what were the deadliest air strikes since the foreign-backed aggression began.