The Israeli Air Force (IAF) conducted an airstrike against Damascus international airport and some other points in the country on Friday night, Syria’s state media reported, the third Israeli attack in Syria in the past two weeks.
Syria’s SANA news agency reported that five Syrian soldiers were killed in the attack that was carried out from the direction of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). The attack caused damage to infrastructure as well.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that the other positions hit in the vicinity of the airport belong to Iranian-backed militias.
The Saudi Al-Hadath channel reports that the attack “caused heavy damage” to one of the facilities belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).
The IDF has remained silent on the report, as it usually does.
According to the SOHR’s count, this is the 25th Israeli attack in Syria in 2022. The attacks destroyed some 70 targets, including buildings, warehouses, and headquarters. These strikes killed 56 military personnel and injured 68 others, and injured 23 civilians.
In the last attack, on September 7, three people were killed, and five others were wounded in an Israeli strike on Aleppo International Airport and its vicinity.
Iran routinely attempts to arm the Lebanon-based Hezbollah with advanced weapons. Israel has exposed and thwarted multiple attempts by Iran to transfer game-changing weapons to Hezbollah, including by air shipments from Iran, through Damascus Airport.
Over the years, the IAF has carried out thousands of attacks to thwart the Iranian entrenchment in the war-torn country and to prevent Hezbollah from accumulating advanced weapons.
According to the SOHR, the IAF conducted 29 strikes in Syria throughout 2021. The attacks hit 71 targets and killed 130 people, including 125 combatants from the Syrian military, Hezbollah and Iranian-backed Shiite militias.
