Israeli missile strikes on northern Syria’s Aleppo province killed one soldier and injured seven others, including two civilians, and damaged the provincial capital’s international airport, which was closed, state media reported.

“About 23:35 [σ.σ. τοπική ώρα και ώρα Ελλάδας] (…) Israel launched an air strike with rockets (…) at the international airport in Aleppo and various places on the outskirts of Aleppo,” a source close to the Syrian army told state news agency SANA.

“One soldier died and seven people were injured, including two civilians,” the source continued, telling SANA of “property damage” and adding that the airport in Aleppo – the second largest in Syria – was “put out of action.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based NGO with a wide network of sources in the country, spoke of “explosions (…) in the Aleppo International Airport sector and the Nairab military airport in Aleppo province (…), causing a fire in a warehouse ammunition.”

The NGO added that “large material damage was found at both airports.”

Israeli rockets also hit “factories” where defense materials are produced in the Safira district of Aleppo province, causing “damage”, according to the same source.

Syrian air defense intercepted Israeli missiles and shot down several, Syrian state media reported earlier.

Since the start of the war in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syrian territory, the vast majority of them from the air, against the positions of the Syrian military and its allies, Iranian forces and pro-Iranian militias, especially the Lebanese Hezbollah. He rarely officially confirms his actions in a neighboring country in the context of this undeclared war, but often says that he will not allow Iran, his sworn enemy, to build a foothold or expand his influence at his doorstep.

The Iranian-backed militias have a strong presence in the Aleppo region, where they provided decisive support to the Syrian army when it recaptured the city from rebel hands in 2016.

The airport in Aleppo was hit twice by Israeli airstrikes in March. As a result of the first raid (March 7), three people were killed, during the second (March 22) material damage was caused, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. In both cases, the airport was closed for several days.

Source: RES-IPE