Israeli military aircraft carried out a series of powerful airstrikes on military targets in the Syrian port city of Tartus, home to an important Russian naval base and ship repair facility, on the night of 15-16 December.

Russia has begun withdrawing a large amount of military equipment and troops from Syria following the ouster of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, according to two US officials and a western official familiar with the intelligence.

The images show new activity at the Hmeimim Air Base over the past few days as Russia's military footprint in Syria remains in limbo.

Israel said it had wiped out the vast majority of the Syrian military's assets, including huge chunks of its air-defense network.

Israel launched a series of airstrikes in Syria's coastal Tartus region late Sunday, marking the most intense bombardment in the area since 2012, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Russia's military presence at two key bases in Syria fell into uncertainty after the Assad regime fell last weekend.

Syria’s new transitional government says there is no place for Russian presence in Syria a week after the country’s long-time President Bashar al-Assad was overthrown. The new government also says it is open to engage in contacts with all countries to pave Syria’s new future.

The toppling of Bashar Assad has raised tentative hopes that Syrians might live peacefully and as equals after a half century of authoritarian rule. While there have been bursts of deadly sectarian violence in the days since Assad was ousted,

Russia’s intervention on behalf of former Syrian leader Bashar Assad once turned the tide of Syria's civil war

The target was apparently a weapons depot, with the explosion so large it caused seismic equipment to log 3 on the Richter scale

In the villages above the Syrian port city of Tartus they once hailed the sons who died fighting in Bashar al-Assad's service as martyrs.Down the hill in Tartus, a large port city on the Mediterranean that still holds a Russian naval garrison that once backed Assad,

Israeli warplanes conducted airstrikes late Sunday on military positions in Syria's Latakia and Tartus provinces, according to information from an aircraft observation post. The attacks targeted several key sites in western Syria, including military bases and ammunition depots.