Israeli strikes put Damascus airport out of service again, just hours after it resumed operations

Israeli air strikes on Sunday made Damascus airport inoperable just hours after flights had resumed following a similar attack last month, a war monitor said. “Israeli warplanes on Sunday afternoon carried out a new raid targeting Damascus International Airport… putting it out of service again,” said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said the raid targeted the runways, and reported the sound of an explosion from the direction of a military airport elsewhere in the capital. Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its northern neighbour since Syria’s civil war began in 2011, primarily targeting fighters of the Lebanese group Hezbollah and other Iran-backed forces as well as Syrian army positions. But it has intensified attacks since the war between Israel and Hamas, a Hezbollah ally, began on 7 October, and Israeli strikes on Damascus airport and Aleppo airport in the north on 12 October and 22 October put both facilities out of service. Two ticketing offices in the capital had told AFP flights had resumed from Damascus on Sunday, and local media also reported the resumption. Authorities had yet to make an official announcement. Flights were re-routed to Latakia on the west coast after the 22 October strikes. Israel rarely comments on individual strikes targeting Syria, but it has repeatedly said it will not allow arch-foe Iran, which backs President Bashar al-Assad’s government, to expand its presence there.