Israeli missiles target Syria’s Aleppo airport

Israel attacked Syria’s Aleppo airport causing material damage. (File/AFP)

• SOHR says four missiles hit a runway and warehouses surrounding the airport
• The warehouses likely contained a shipment of Iranian rocket, the war monitor said

DAMASCUS: Several Israeli strikes hit Aleppo airport in northern Syria on Wednesday, the official SANA news agency said, also reporting material damage.
“At around 2000 hours (1700 GMT), the Israeli enemy targeted Aleppo international airport with missile fire, causing some material damage at the heart of the facility,” the agency said.
The Syrian government did not report any casualties.
SANA had earlier reported “the sound of explosions” in the area.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a wide network of sources on the ground for its information, confirmed there had been an attack.
It 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.
The Observatory did not report any casualties, but said the strikes had triggered explosions and fires.
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.
Last Thursday, SANA reported two civilians wounded in a series of Israeli air strikes on the western Hama and Tartus regions.
The Observatory said they were among the heaviest Israeli raids so far against Iranian-aligned militias in Syria.
Since civil war erupted in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes inside government-controlled parts of its northern neighbor, targeting government troops as well as allied Iran-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters.
While Israel rarely comments on individual strikes, it has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of them. 
The Israeli military has defended such action as necessary to prevent arch-enemy Iran from gaining a foothold on its doorstep.
However, the Israeli military declined to comment on the airstrike targeting Aleppo’s airport.
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.
(With AFP and AP)