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AMMAN, Jan 2 (Reuters) – The Syrian military stated on Monday that Israel had carried out a missile strike on Damascus Worldwide Airport and put it out of service, the newest in a string of strikes focusing on Iran-linked property.
A volley of air-launched missiles had hit the airport at 2 a.m., the military stated in a press release. That they had come from the course of Lake Tiberias in Israel.
Missiles had additionally hit targets within the south of Damascus, killing two members of the Syrian armed forces and inflicting some harm, the military stated.
Earlier, two regional intelligence sources stated the strikes had hit an outpost close to the airport of Iran’s Quds Drive and militias it backs. Their presence has unfold in Syria lately.
The Israel Defence Drive didn’t instantly touch upon the assault.
Final 12 months, Israel intensified strikes on Damascus Worldwide and different civilian airports to disrupt Tehran’s growing use of aerial provide traces to ship arms to allies in Syria and Lebanon, together with Hezbollah.
Syria halted flights to and from the airport in June for practically two weeks after Israeli strikes brought on intensive harm to infrastructure, together with a runway and a terminal.
Israel fired missiles at Damascus Worldwide once more in September, when it additionally struck the nation’s second-largest civilian airport, within the northern metropolis of Aleppo, placing it out of operation for a number of days.
Western and regional intelligence sources say Tehran has adopted civilian air transportation as a extra dependable technique of ferrying army gear to its forces and to allied fighters in Syria, following Israeli disruption of floor provide.
Israel has repeatedly bombed Iran-backed militia targets in Syria lately, saying its aim is to erode Tehran’s army presence, which Western intelligence sources say has expanded within the war-torn nation.
They are saying Iran has a robust presence within the Sayeda Zainab neighbourhood of southern Damascus, the place militias that it backs have underground bases.
Iran’s proxy militias, led by Lebanon’s Hezbollah, now maintain sway in huge areas in japanese, southern and northwestern Syria and in a number of suburbs across the capital.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s authorities has by no means publicly acknowledged that Iranian forces function on his behalf in Syria’s civil battle, saying Tehran has solely army advisers on the bottom.
The chief of Israel’s armed forces, Lieutenant-Common Aviv Kohavi, final month claimed credit score for an air strike on a convoy that had entered Syria from Iraq, saying the goal had been a truck carrying Iranian weaponry. learn extra
Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Modifying by Nick Zieminski and Bradley Perrett
Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Rules.
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