Battle of Latakia

Battle of Latakia
Part of the Yom Kippur War
Diagram outlining the Battle of Latakia
Date 7 October 1973 Location near Latakia, Syria Result Decisive Israeli victory
Belligerents
Israel	Syria
Commanders and leaders
Michael Barkai	Fadal Hussein
Strength
5 ships	5 ships
Casualties and losses
None	All vessels sunk Unknown casualties

Coordinates: 35°31′16″N 35°43′34″E / 35.52105°N 35.726114°E / 35.52105; 35.726114

The Battle of Latakia (Arabic: معركة اللاذقية‎‎; Hebrew: קרב לטקיה‎‎) was a small but revolutionary naval battle of the Yom Kippur War, fought on 7 October 1973 between Israel and Syria. It was the first naval battle in history to see combat between surface-to-surface missile-equipped missile boats and the use of electronic deception.

At the outset of hostilities, the Israeli Navy set out to destroy the naval capabilities of the Syrians, who were equipped with Soviet Komar-class and Osa-class missile boats. The Syrian missile boats were equipped with Soviet manufactured P-15 Termit (NATO reporting name: SS-N-2 Styx) anti-ship missiles with twice the range of the Israeli Gabriel anti-ship missiles.

The four Israeli Navy Sa'ar 3-class and one Sa'ar 4-class missile boats headed towards the Syrian port of Latakia in two parallel columns. In the western column were the missile boats Miznak (Blast), Ga'ash (Storm), and Hanit (Lance); the eastern column was composed of the missile boats Mivtach (Reliance) and Reshef (Spark)).

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