Trans Asia News
Damascus- Israeli war planes on Thursday bombed the international airports of the capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo putting them out of service a day before the Iranian Foreign Minister was scheduled to visit the Syrian capital.
It is the first Israeli airstrikes on Syria since the Palestinian fighters carried out a surprise weekend onslaught on southern Israel that killed over 1,000 people. Israel has retaliated with intensive airstrikes on the besieged Gaza strip. Nearly two thousand people, including hundreds of children have died in the relentless bombardment from ground, sea and air, according to media reports.
A Syrian military official told SANA, “This aggression is a desperate attempt by the criminal Israeli enemy to divert attention from the crimes it is committing in Gaza, and the great losses it is suffering at the hands of the Palestinian resistance.”
Syria, which is just emerging from a brutal war unleashed by the Islamist militants, is the only Arab country officially in the state of war with the Jewish state.
The airstrikes came a day before Iran’s foreign minister was scheduled to visit Syria to meet officials over the volatile situation in the region.
They also came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel, and hours after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, in a telephone call with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, called on Arab and Islamic countries to cooperate in confronting Israel.
During more than a decade of civil war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its northern neighbour, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions.
Citing local media outfit Sham FM, reports said that Syrian air defense systems have been deployed in response to the attack on the airports. The strikes came amid reports of an imminent ground invasion by Israel into Gaza in response to spectacular Palestinian strikes inside Israel over the weekend.
All flights in and out of Syria are currently canceled. Notably, both Aleppo and Damascus airports are controlled by the government of Syria. Open-source intelligence monitor OSINTdefender has shared that a Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) has been released by Syria for Damascus Airport, stating that both of its runways are presently closed due to ‘work in progress.’
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