Damascus International Airport was put out of service on Monday by Israeli strikes that killed four people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH).
“Four fighters, including two Syrian soldiers, were killed by the Israeli bombardment”, told Agence France-Presse Rami Abdul Rahman, the head of the OSDH, an organization based in the United Kingdom. He was unable to specify the nationality of the other two killed.
The official Syrian news agency Sana, citing a military source, said two Syrian army soldiers were killed in the attack, which took place around 2:00 a.m. Monday.
Hezbollah and pro-Iranian groups targeted
According to Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based organization, the attack was aimed at “positions of Hezbollah and pro-Iranian groups in the airport and its surroundings, including an arms depot”.
The Jewish state has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in its neighbor since the start of the civil war in Syria in 2011, targeting not only Syrian army positions but also pro-Iranian forces and Lebanese Hezbollah.
“We will not accept a Hezbollah 2.0 in Syria”
On December 28, the head of the Israeli army’s operations directorate, Major General Oded Basiuk, spoke about these raids in Syria when presenting his operational prospects for 2023.
“We see our action plan in Syria as an example of how continued and persistent military action leads to shaping and influencing the entire region”the IDF tweeted when reporting on General Basiuk’s presentation.
“We will not accept a Hezbollah 2.0 in Syria”added the Israeli army.
Before dawn on June 10, the Israeli air force had already bombed the airport located in the south of the Syrian capital, putting the airstrips out of service for nearly two weeks.
Aleppo airport, the second largest in the country, also had to close for several days in September, following Israeli raids.