ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A barrage of Israeli strikes targeting the airport of Syria’s government-held northern city of Aleppo on Saturday put the airport out of service, the Syrian defense ministry reported, two days after both Aleppo and Damascus airports were targeted by a similar strike.
“At approximately 11:35 pm on Saturday, October 14, 2023, the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea, west of Latakia, targeting Aleppo International Airport, which led to material damage to the airport and put it out of service,” the Syrian defense ministry said in a statement.
It was the second Israeli attack on Syria’s airports since Thursday when Israeli strikes rendered Syria’s two main airports in Damascus and Aleppo out of service. The attacks come as Israel and Palestinian militants fight an all-out-war.
The defense ministry blasted Israel for “its continuing crimes against the Palestinian people and the massacres it commits against innocent civilians, including women and children,” while accusing it of being the “largest supporter of terrorist organizations in the region and Syria in particular.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, stated that Saturday’s strikes on Aleppo airport caused it to go out of service “hours after it was restored to service.”
Israel has carried out 34 attacks against Syria since January, causing the death of 72 soldiers and injuring 85 others while resulting in the destruction of 71 targets, according to the Observatory.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on regime-controlled areas of Syria throughout its 12-year civil war, often claiming to strike pro-Iran militias, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah group which supports the Syrian army.
While it rarely comments on airstrikes attributed to it in Syria, Israel has repeatedly warned that it would not tolerate its arch-rival Iran to increase its presence there.
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