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)
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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.”



Hezbollah Chief Pledges to Coordinate with Lebanese Army to Implement Truce

A view of the destruction in the southern Lebanese village of Mais al-Jabal, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 29 November 2024. (EPA)
A view of the destruction in the southern Lebanese village of Mais al-Jabal, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 29 November 2024. (EPA)
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Hezbollah Chief Pledges to Coordinate with Lebanese Army to Implement Truce

A view of the destruction in the southern Lebanese village of Mais al-Jabal, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 29 November 2024. (EPA)
A view of the destruction in the southern Lebanese village of Mais al-Jabal, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 29 November 2024. (EPA)

The head of Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, pledged on Friday to coordinate closely with the Lebanese army to implement a ceasefire deal with Israel, which he said his group had agreed to "with heads held high".

It was his first address since a ceasefire came into effect on Wednesday after more than a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel that decimated swathes of Lebanon and killed 4,000 people including hundreds of women and children.

Qassem said Hezbollah had "approved the deal, with the resistance strong in the battlefield, and our heads held high with our right to defend (ourselves)."

The ceasefire stipulates that Hezbollah will withdraw from areas south of the Litani river, which runs some 30 km (20 miles) north of the border with Israel, and that the Lebanese army will deploy troops there as Israeli ground troops withdraw.

"There will be high-level coordination between the Resistance (Hezbollah) and the Lebanese army to implement the commitments of the deal," Qassem said.

The Lebanese army has already sent additional troops to the south but is preparing a detailed deployment plan to share with Lebanon's cabinet, security sources and officials have said.

That effort has been complicated by the continuing presence of Israeli troops on Lebanese territory. The deal grants them a full 60 days to complete their withdrawal.

The Israeli military has issued restrictions on people returning to villages along Lebanon's border with Israel and has fired at people in those villages in recent days, calling those movements a violation of the truce.

Both the Lebanese army and Hezbollah have accused Israel of breaching the ceasefire in those instances, and by launching an airstrike above the Litani River on Thursday.

Qassem said the group had scored a "divine victory" against Israel even greater than that declared after the two foes last fought in 2006.

"To those that were betting that Hezbollah would be weakened, we are sorry, their bets have failed," he said.