Israeli airstrikes causes Syria’s main airport to close

ISRAELI airstrikes have rendered Syria’s main airport inoperable over the weekend, causing major damage to the runways and leaving the capital’s airport closed indefinitely.

Damascus airport on Sunday remained closed from what the regime’s transport ministry claimed was “significant” damage to the runways and terminal.

All flights to and from the airport have been suspended since the strikes hit on Friday morning. The ministry on Saturday claimed that the runway had been hit in “several locations”, as well as the second terminal.

Initial satellite imagery analysis of the airport shows impact in three separate locations to both runways.

While there is limited evidence of the strike outside of Syrian pro-government media, sources confirmed to The Daily Telegraph that Damascus airport will be out of service for weeks.

Syrian opposition activists claim that the areas around the airport are used by Iranian-backed militias and that the Israeli attack was targeting “warehouses” of these groups. As a rule Israel does not comment on individual strikes within Syria, but admits that it regularly targets Iranian-backed militias, such as Hezbollah forces, in the country, who fight on behalf of the Syrian regime.

A pilot from a Syrian airline described the damage as “an accurate strike aimed to put the airport out of service”.

For years Israel has hit targets around the airport but has never caused serious damage to airport infrastructure.