SOHR: Israel launches missile attacks on Syria’s Aleppo airport and Damascus

An Israeli missile attack hit Syria’s Aleppo airport and Syrian air defences confronted “an Israeli air aggression” over the city of Damascus on Wednesday, the country’s Defence Ministry said.

“Around 8.00pm, the Israeli enemy targeted Aleppo International Airport with a missile strike, which caused material damage to the airport,” a military source said.

The ministry said Israel at 9.18pm fired missiles from the direction of Sea of Galilee in the Palestinian Territories at points south-east of the city of Damascus.

“Our air defences confronted the aggression’s missiles and downed some of them,” the ministry quoted a military source as saying.

The attacks caused some damage to property, the ministry said.

The airport is next to Aleppo’s Al Nayreb suburb, several kilometres from the city centre, and explosions were heard in the area on Wednesday night, state media reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor with a large network of sources across the country, reported that Israeli bombing had hit targets near Aleppo airport.

Four rockets hit a runway and depots at the airport, the watchdog reported from Britain.

The attack caused a fire and explosions at a store holding a stockpile of rockets that probably belong to Iran, it said.

Since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes against its neighbour, aiming at government troops, and allied Iran-backed forces and fighters from Lebanon’s Shiite group Hezbollah.

While Israel rarely comments on strikes, it has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of them.

The Israeli military has defended them as necessary to prevent arch-foe Iran from gaining a foothold on its doorstep.

The conflict in Syria has killed nearly half a million people and forced about half of the country’s pre-war population from their homes.