SOHR: Israeli missile strikes have shut down Damascus airport

 

Israel’s military fired rockets at the Syrian capital’s international airport early Monday, rendering it inoperative and killing two soldiers and wounding two others, the Syrian army said.

The attack, the second in seven months that shut down Damascus International Airport, caused material damage in a nearby area, the army said, without giving further details.

Israel has targeted airports and ports in government-held parts of Syria to prevent arms shipments from Iran to Tehran-backed militant groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah.

An opposition war observer reported that Israeli attacks hit both the airport and a weapons depot near the facility south of Damascus. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four people were killed in the strike.

No comment came from Israel.

On June 10, Israeli air strikes that hit Damascus International Airport caused significant damage to infrastructure and runways. Two weeks later it reopened after repairs.

In September, Israeli airstrikes hit the international airport in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest and once commercial hub, also shutting it down for days.

In late 2021, Israeli warplanes fired missiles that hit the port of Latakia, hitting containers and igniting a huge fire.

Israel has carried out hundreds of attacks on targets in government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.

But Israel has acknowledged that it is targeting bases of Iran-aligned militant groups such as Lebanese Hezbollah, which has dispatched thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.

Thousands of Iranian-backed militants have joined Syria’s 11-year civil war and helped tip the balance of power in Assad’s favor.

Israel says an Iranian presence on its northern border is a red line justifying its attacks on facilities and weapons in Syria.

 

Source: Canada Today