Israel Targets Aleppo, Damascus Airports 10 Times in Over a Year to ‘Fight Iran’

Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous inspects the damage to the runway at Damascus International Airport last Friday after an Israeli bombing. (SANA)
Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous inspects the damage to the runway at Damascus International Airport last Friday after an Israeli bombing. (SANA)
TT

Israel Targets Aleppo, Damascus Airports 10 Times in Over a Year to ‘Fight Iran’

Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous inspects the damage to the runway at Damascus International Airport last Friday after an Israeli bombing. (SANA)
Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous inspects the damage to the runway at Damascus International Airport last Friday after an Israeli bombing. (SANA)

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has documented ten Israeli attacks in over a year on Aleppo and Damascus international airports in a bid to fight Iran in Syria.

These attacks led to putting Aleppo International Airport out of service on six occasions and Damascus International Airport on one occasion.

In addition, the Israeli attacks on the two airports since August 2022 left 25 combatants dead, including officers, and Iranian-backed non-Syrian and Syrian militiamen.

Israel attacked Saturday the airport of Aleppo for the second time in 48 hours, putting it out of service.

On Sunday, a senior Israeli official accused Iran of trying to open a second war front by deploying weapons in or through Syria as Israel steps up a counter-offensive in Gaza to the south.

Syria accused Israel of carrying out strikes against Damascus and Aleppo airports last week.

In a related context, a military source who spoke on condition of anonymity told the Syrian opposition Orient TV that the Iranian militias have recently started a new program to develop and assemble drones at the T4 military airport in eastern Homs in coordination with the airport command and the Syrian Air Force.

The source added this is supervised by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The “Quds Force” militias worked to assemble and develop four types of drones and trained their members and “Hezbollah” militiamen on them within the airport.

Meanwhile, Al-Alam TV reported on Sunday that Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi had a phone conversation with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Sunday and informed him that if Israel didn’t stop its attacks on Gaza, then “the theater will expand”.

Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said “If the attacks of the Zionist regime against civilians and the defenseless people of Gaza persist, no one can guarantee that the situation will be under control and the scope of the fighting won’t expand.”



Unidentified Drone Shot Down Over Iraq's Kirkuk

American army soldiers at the K1 Air Base northwest of Kirkuk in northern Iraq before a planned US pullout on March 29, 2020. (AFP)
American army soldiers at the K1 Air Base northwest of Kirkuk in northern Iraq before a planned US pullout on March 29, 2020. (AFP)
TT

Unidentified Drone Shot Down Over Iraq's Kirkuk

American army soldiers at the K1 Air Base northwest of Kirkuk in northern Iraq before a planned US pullout on March 29, 2020. (AFP)
American army soldiers at the K1 Air Base northwest of Kirkuk in northern Iraq before a planned US pullout on March 29, 2020. (AFP)

Iraq's air defenses shot down an unmanned drone on Thursday in the northern city of Kirkuk, two police sources told Reuters, triggering an investigation into the identity of the drone.
One Iraqi military colonel said on condition of anonymity that an initial investigation of the debris showed it was a Turkish military armed drone.
The drone fell in the center of Kirkuk, igniting a fire near some houses, but caused no casualties, police sources said, adding the blaze had been brought under control by firefighters.
There was no immediate response from Turkish authorities to a request for comment.