Israel steps up Syria strikes, says Turkey aims for 'protectorate'

DAMASCUS/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel stepped up airstrikes on Syria, declaring the attacks a warning to the new Islamist rulers in Damascus as it accused their ally Turkey on Thursday of trying to turn the country into a Turkish protectorate.

Later on Thursday, Turkey said Israel must withdraw from Syria and stop harming stabilization efforts there.

"Israel has become the greatest threat to regional security" and is a "strategic destabilizer, causing chaos and feeding terrorism," the Foreign Ministry in Ankara said.

"Therefore, in order to establish security throughout the region, Israel must first abandon its expansionist policies, withdraw from the territories it occupies, and stop undermining efforts to establish stability in Syria," it said.

The strikes, targeting a site near Damascus and air bases, put renewed focus on Israeli concerns about the Islamists who deposed Bashar al-Assad in December, with Israeli officials viewing them as a rising threat at their border.

Also suspicious of Ankara's sway over Damascus, Israel has been working to advance its goals in Syria since Assad was toppled, seizing ground in the southwest, declaring a willingness to protect the Druze minority, lobbying Washington for a weak state, and blowing up much of the Syrian military's heavy weapons and equipment in the days after Assad fell.

The Israeli army said its forces operating in the southwest overnight killed several militants who opened fire on them. They were on a targeted mission at the time beyond the separation zone where they are deployed inside Syria, it said.

Syria's state news agency SANA said Israeli shelling had killed nine people in the area, during what it described as the deepest incursion yet by Israeli troops in the area.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the airstrikes late on Wednesday evening were "a clear message and a warning for the future - we will not allow the security of the State of Israel to be harmed."

Katz said in a statement that Israel's armed forces would remain in buffer zones within Syria and act against threats to its security, warning Syria's government it would pay a heavy price if it allowed forces hostile to Israel to enter.

Reflecting Israeli concerns about Turkish influence in the new Syria, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused Ankara of playing a "negative role" there, in Lebanon and other regions.

"They are doing their utmost to have Syria as a Turkish protectorate. It's clear that is their intention," he told a press conference in Paris.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said the Israeli strikes were an unjustified escalation aimed at destabilising the country, calling on the international community to put pressure on Israel to "stop its aggression."

Later on Thursday, Israeli strikes targeted the town of Kiswah, south of Damascus, according to Syria's state news agency. There were no immediate reports of casualties and no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Israel bombed Syria frequently when the country was governed by Assad, targeting the foothold established by his ally Iran during the civil war.

AIR BASE DESTROYED

The latest strikes were some of the most intense Israeli attacks in Syria since Assad was toppled.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said Israel struck five separate areas within a 30-minute window, resulting in the near-complete destruction of the Hama air base and wounding dozens of civilians and soldiers.

The Israeli military said it had struck remaining military capabilities at air bases in Hama and Homs provinces, in addition to remaining military infrastructure in the Damascus area, where Syrian media and officials said the vicinity of a scientific research facility was hit.

In Hama, a Syrian military source told Reuters a dozen strikes demolished the runways, tower, arms depots and hangars at the military airport. "Israel has completely destroyed Hama air base to ensure it is not used," the source said.

Israel also said on Wednesday it targeted the T4 air base in Homs province, which it has repeatedly hit over the past week.

In the incident in southwestern Syria, the Israeli military said its forces were operating in the Tasil area, "confiscating weapons and destroying terrorist infrastructure" when several militants fired on them.

Residents of the Tasil area reached by phone said a group of armed locals were killed after confronting an Israeli army contingent that had arrived in the area to destroy a former Syrian army encampment.

The Israeli military said there were no casualties among its forces who "responded with fire and eliminated several armed terrorists from the ground and air."

"The presence of weapons in southern Syria constitutes a threat to the State of Israel," it said. "The IDF will not allow a military threat to exist in Syria and will act against it."

(Reporting by Yomna Ehab, Jaidaa Taha, Sulieman Al-Khalidi, Tala Ramadan and James Mackenzie, John Irish and Ahmed Tolba; Writing by Yomna Ehab and Tom Perry; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Stephen Coates, Alex Richardson and Rod Nickel)