Syria says Israeli strike briefly paralyzed Damascus airport

The Syrian army on Monday said Israel's military fired missiles toward the international airport in Damascus, putting it out of service. Two soldiers were killed, and two others injured.

There was some material damage to the nearby area, the army added in a statement. The debris had been removed and flights would resume from 9 a.m. local time (0600 GMT), said the Transport Ministry.

Syria's state news agency SANA reported, citing a military source, that Israel carried out an air attack with "barrages of missiles, targeting Damascus International Airport and its surroundings" at around 2 a.m. (2300 GMT). The report added that the attack caused "the death of two soldiers... [and put] Damascus international airport out of service."

The Syrian army said missile attacks also hit the south of Damascus, killing two soldiers. 

There has been no comment from the Israeli military on the incident. 

An opposition war monitor, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), said the Israeli strikes hit the airport as well as an arms depot close to the facility south of Damascus. 

"Four fighters including two Syrian soldiers were killed" by the Israeli strike, Rami Abdul Rahman, head of SOHR, told the AFP news agency. The missiles also hit "positions for Hezbollah and pro-Iranian groups inside the airport and its surroundings, including a weapons warehouse," Abdul Rahman said. 

Second attack on airport

This is the second time the Damascus International Airport was put of service in less than a year. It was previously attacked by Israeli airstrikes on June 10, 2022. 

During the last attack, there was heavy damage to the runways and infrastructure. It had been shut for two weeks for repairs.

Israel has repeatedly bombed Iranian-backed militant groups in Syria. It has also carried out strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of the war-torn country, particularly ports and airports, in an apparent attempt to prevent arms shipments from Iran to militant groups backed by Tehran.

Western and regional intelligence sources say Tehran has adopted civilian air transportation as a more reliable means of ferrying military equipment to allied fighters in Syria, following Israeli disruption of ground supply.

Correction, January 2, 2023: A previous version of this article stated that Tel Aviv had not commented on the incident. This has been corrected to reflect that the Israeli military had not commented. We apologize for the error.

tg/wd,jcg (AFP, AP, Reuters)