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. To provoke the Syrian missile boats into open combat, the commander of the Israeli Navy missile-boat flotilla, Michael Barkai, was dispatched with seven missile boats to launch a night attack on Syrian ports.