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The Second Battle of Latakia

After losing three missile boats during the first Battle of Latakia on 7 October 1973, the Syrian Navy refused to engage the Israeli Navy in open battle at sea. Instead, it used its missile boats on short forays from harbor mouths to launch missiles, relying on coastal artillery batteries for defense. In order to lure the syrian missile boats in open combat commander Michael Barkai was tasked with attacking syrian ports. Seven missile boats were assigned to the mission and were split up by Barkai in three different strike groups: two Sa'ar 4-class missile boats were to attack the Port of Banias, two boats were to attack the Syrian naval base at Mina Al-Baida, the last three missile boats, the Sa'ar 3-class boats INS Hetz and INS Herev and the Sa'ar 2-class boat INS Haifa, were to attack Latakia again. The night of 11th October 1973 the Israeli boats approaching Latakia came under attack by enemy missile boats hiding among the merchant vessels anchored at the entrance of the bay. All P15s missed their targets and one was shot down by 20mm gunfire, the Israeli quickly return fire with their Gabriel anti-ship missiles despite the risk of civilian casualties. The Gabriels sank two merchant vessels, one Greek and one Japanese, while two others hit two enemy missile boats. After almost 2 hours the engagment came to an end when the Israeli forces started retreating towards the open sea without having achieved the decisive victory they were looking for.