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2022-06-11 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
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Russia lashes Israel as satellite images show ‘disabled' Damascus airport after raid
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[IsraelTimes] Moscow condemns ’vicious, provocative’ attacks; both runways in Syrian capital hit three times; Israel has accused Iran of using civilian flights to transfer weapons to Hezbollah
In an unusually bitter condemnation, Russia lashed out at Israel Friday following a pre-dawn strike blamed on Israel at Damascus Airport.
An Israeli satellite intelligence firm published images showing significant damage to the runways, which it said disabled the entire airport.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Friday evening condemned the "vicious practice" of Israeli strikes on civilian infrastructure, which it said were "provocative" and "in violation of the basic norms of international law."
Israel frequently targets Iran-tied facilities and convoys in Syria, and relies on a "deconfliction mechanism" agreed with Moscow to avoid direct confrontation with Russian forces there. Israel’s ties with Russia are being strained by the Ukraine conflict, however, and Friday’s bitter comments from Russia about the Syrian strike underlined the rising friction.
Syria’s state media reported that Israeli jets struck targets south of Damascus at around 4:20 a.m on Friday, wounding one person and causing material damage. Hours later, the country’s Transport Ministry announced that it would suspend incoming and outgoing flights at the airport, citing technical disruptions.
Israel made no official comment on the incident.
ImageSat International (ISI) said the strikes "completely disabled" operations at both the airport’s runways. Each runway appeared to have been struck three times.
In separate missile strikes in April and May, other sections of one of the runways were damaged in attacks attributed to Israel. According to ISI, those strikes shortened the length of the runway significantly and prevented large planes from landing.
Friday’s strike "disabled the entire airport until repair," ISI said.
Israel has repeatedly charged Iran with smuggling weapons and missile-improving systems from Tehran to its Lebanese terror proxy Hezbollah using civilian flights via Syria.
Last month, the Israel Defense Forces’ Arabic-language spokesperson alleged that the son-in-law of assassinated Iran Revolutionary Guards Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani was behind such operations.
Avichay Adraee accused Iran and Hezbollah of "endangering civilians" by smuggling the armaments via civilian flights to Damascus International Airport in order "to maintain secrecy."
Israel has staged hundreds of strikes on targets in Syria over the years but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations. It says it targets bases of Iran-allied militias, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah group that has fighters deployed in Syria backing Assad’s government forces, as well as arms shipments believed to be bound for various proxies.
Israeli strikes have continued in Syrian airspace, which is largely controlled by Russia, even as ties with Moscow have deteriorated in recent weeks. Israel has found itself at odds with Russia as it has increasingly supported Ukraine while seeking to maintain freedom of movement in Syria’s skies.
Late Monday night, Syrian state media reported that Israeli missiles targeted Syrian army positions south of Damascus, causing damage but no casualties. Also this week, Israeli tanks reportedly shelled a Syrian military position in a demilitarized part of the Golan Heights.
From RIA Novosti:
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
The Damascus airport runway and lighting were disabled after the strike by the Israeli Air Force, the building of one of the terminals was damaged, the Syrian Ministry of Transport said on Saturday night.
On Friday morning, the Syrian Defense Ministry said Israel fired rockets at a number of targets south of Damascus . Air defense forces are said to have shot down most of the missiles, and one civilian was injured in the Israeli attack. After that, the arrival of flights to the international airport of the Syrian capital Damascus and departures from it were suspended.
"As a result of Israel's aggression, which targeted the Damascus International Airport infrastructure, runways were disabled and significantly damaged in several places, along with navigation lighting," the agency said in a statement, quoted by radio station Shams FM.
The building of the second terminal of the airport was also damaged as a result of the attack.
"At the moment, our specialists are working to eliminate the consequences of the attack and repair what was damaged as a result of the attack. Immediately after the repair and flight safety checks, the operation of the air harbor will be resumed," the ministry said.
Private Syrian airline Cham Wings Airlines said earlier that all of its flights were diverted from Damascus airport to Aleppo in the north of the country.
The Israeli military has repeatedly struck targets in Syria, explaining their actions by the desire to prevent modern weapons from falling into the hands of enemies. First of all, we are talking about the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, which is fighting in the region on the side of Bashar al-Assad and is controlled by Tehran.
Damascus has repeatedly appealed to the UN Security Council with a demand to put pressure on Tel Aviv so that they stop systematically violating Syrian sovereignty.
3rd time's the charm!
Israel targeted on Friday at dawn sites and military posts south of the Syrian capital, Damascus, with missiles.
State News Agency SANA cited a military source as saying, “The Israeli enemy launched at 4.20 am on Friday an aerial aggression from the occupied Syria Golan’s airspace, targeting some post south of Damascus.”
“Army air defenses confronted the aggression and shot down a most of the missiles,” the source added.
As a result, a civilian was wounded and material losses were reported, according to the source cited by SANA.
On Monday, Israel launched a similar airstrike on south of Damascus, only material losses were reported.
The airport is located in a region south of Damascus where Iran-backed groups, including Hezbollah, regularly operate.
The vicinity of the facility is favorite target for Israel which has launched 15 aerial attacks on Syria this year alone and regularly accuses Iran of using Damascus airport to send weapons shipments to its allies.
The Observatory said the runway hit in the attack had already been in poor condition before the raids.
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