Damascus airport reopens after Israeli raid kills Syrian soldiers

Syrian military says Israeli missiles killed two troopers and had put Damascus airport out of service for second time in a yr.

The Damascus Worldwide Airport was closed for weeks in June of final yr after Israeli air raids precipitated important injury to infrastructure and runways [File: SANA/Handout via Reuters]

Syria’s navy says Israeli missiles have killed not less than two Syrian troopers and quickly put the nation’s principal worldwide airport out of service.

The volley of air-launched missiles got here from the route of Lake Tiberias in Israel at about 2am native time on Monday (23:00 GMT Sunday) and focused the Damascus Worldwide Airport and its environment, the navy mentioned in an announcement carried by the official SANA information company.

The assaults resulted within the “loss of life of two troopers, the wounding of two others, some materials losses” and put the airport out of service, the assertion mentioned.

SANA later reported that the Syria’s transport ministry had introduced the reopening of the airport at 9am native time (0600 GMT).

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a United Kingdom-based monitoring group, reported that the Israeli raids hit the airport in addition to an arms depot near the ability south of Damascus. It mentioned not less than 4 folks had been killed within the assault.

There was no rapid remark from Israel.

The incident marked the second time the Damascus Worldwide Airport was put out of service in lower than a yr.

On June 10, Israeli air raids that hit the airport precipitated important injury to infrastructure and runways.

It reopened two weeks later after repairs.

Israel has additionally hit different Syrian airports, together with a raid in September on the worldwide airport within the metropolis of Aleppo, Syria’s largest and as soon as industrial centre, additionally placing it out of service for days.

Israel has carried out tons of of raids on targets inside government-controlled elements of Syria in recent times however not often acknowledges or discusses such operations. Israel has mentioned, nonetheless, that it targets bases of Iran-allied armed teams, akin to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has despatched 1000's of fighters to assist Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

Rami Khouri, a senior fellow on the Harvard Kennedy Faculty’s Center East Initiative, mentioned the most recent Israeli assault may very well be a bid “by the new authorities headed by Benjamin Netanyahu to sign to the Iranians, Syrians and the Russians that Israel goes to take care of this coverage of putting any goal that it thinks is a hazard to its personal safety”.

Netanyahu, who gained a November election, was sworn in as Israel’s prime minister for his sixth time period on December 29.

“The essential factor right here to recollect is that the USA authorities, by way of the Congress, passing legal guidelines years in the past guaranteeing that Israel shall be militarily superior to any mixture of foes or enemies round them. So Israel has impunity to hold out assaults wherever it needs within the area and no person has been capable of cease them,” mentioned Khouri.

“The Israelis and the Russians, who're shut allies with Syria and fought in Syria to maintain the Assad regime in energy, have an understanding that Israel can assault sure positions in Syria, however shouldn't hinder Russian navy actions there,” he mentioned, including that this implies such raids will probably proceed sooner or later.

Monday’s assaults come days after the top of the Israeli navy, Main Normal Oded Basiuk, offered the military’s operational outlook for 2023.

“We see that our plan of action in Syria is an instance of how steady and protracted navy motion results in shaping and influencing all the area,” Basiuk’s presentation mentioned, in keeping with tweets by the Israeli navy.

“We won't settle for Hezbollah 2.0 in Syria,” it mentioned.