Archive image of an air strike on Damascus in April 2023. Photo: AFP
This Sunday, the Syrian government accused Israel of launching a new rocket attack on Damascus International Airport and once again disabling the facilities. in the Jewish state’s second action against the Arab country this week. Flights that were destined for the Syrian capital are being diverted to other areas.
“At around 4:50 p.m. (1:50 p.m. GMT), the Zionist enemy carried out an airstrike with missiles from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting Damascus International Airport and some points in the rural areas of Damascus,” he told the official SANA agency an unidentified military source.
Although Syrian anti-aircraft defenses managed to shoot down most of the projectiles, the missiles that reached their target caused material damage and forced the suspension of air traffic at the capital’s airfield, the source said.
The NGO Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the target of the attacks was the airport runways and that there were also explosions at a military airfield in another area of Damascus.
Just reopened
The Syrian Observatory also reminded us of this The airport reopened yesterday after being closed for more than four weeks due to a series of previous attacks on this airfield and that of Aleppo (northwest).
Local press reports reported that Damascus-bound flights were being diverted to Aleppo and Latakia airports.
Last Wednesday, the Syrian authorities reported that two Israeli rockets were fired against the outskirts of the capital. Israel has intensified its attacks against Syria since the Gaza conflict broke out on October 7, launching more than twenty operations in just a few weeks and shutting down the country’s two main airports several times.
However, it had previously attacked targets in the Arab nation that often belonged to Iranian or Lebanese militias allied with Damascus and which the Jewish state viewed as a threat to its security.
(With information from DW)
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Tensions between Syria and Israel are rising: drones, missiles and fighter jets (+ video)