Israel strikes Aleppo airport
Israel has launched a missile attack targeting the airport in the Syrian city of Aleppo, Syrian state media said, citing a military source.
The Syrian government did not report any casualties.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based opposition war monitor, said in a statement that Israel fired four missiles targeting a runway at the Aleppo International Airport and warehouses surrounding it. The group claimed that the warehouses likely contained a shipment of Iranian rockets.
Meanwhile, Syrian state media reported air defense systems in Damascus firing at what it said were Israeli missiles targeting positions south of the Syrian capital. The opposition war monitor says the Israeli airstrikes targeted military positions. No casualties were reported.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria over recent past years, but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations. The Israeli military declined to comment on the airstrike targeting Aleppo's airport.
Israel has acknowledged, however, that it targets bases of Iran-allied militant groups, such as Lebanon's Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.
On Sunday, Israel launched an airstrike targeting a military facility in western Syrian. Satellite imagery showed widespread destruction in the depot which the opposition war-monitor said stored hundreds of middle-range missiles for Iran-backed fighters.
In June, Israeli airstrikes temporarily put Damascus International Airport out of commission.
According to international reports, the main target of the Israeli missile attack was an Iranian transport aircraft which had brought in a consignment of rockets destined for Hizballah in Lebanon. The same reports also claimed that the attack on Damascus airport was actually targetting another Iranian aircraft which had been unable to land in Aleppo to unload its cargo.
Syria by allowing this to happen becomes a target itself.