Israel carried out airstrikes in Syria, including against an airport in Aleppo, in the hours before dawn on Wednesday morning, according to Syrian media reports.
Several missiles targeted the international airport, the second time it had been hit in recent weeks, the reports said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, or information on the specific targets of the airstrips.
Other reports claimed that separate airstrikes hit targets around the capital Damascus and Latakia on the Mediterranean coast.
There was no comment from the Israeli Defense Forces, in line with their policy of not making general comments on airstrikes in Syria. Israel is believed to have carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-held parts of Syria in recent years, including attacks on Damascus and Aleppo airports, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations.
Israel has admitted, however, that it targets bases of groups linked to Iran, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces. Israel views Iran’s expansion across Syria as a constant threat to its national security, and has carried out strikes across a wide range of targets in an attempt to contain Iranian forces in the region.
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Aleppo International Airport was hit by airstrikes attributed to Israel earlier this month and forced to close its runway for several days.
Days later, Israel carried out a rare daytime strike against targets in northwestern Syria, injuring three soldiers and causing damage, state-run broadcaster SANA said.
Aleppo, which has suffered widespread destruction in Syria’s civil war, was badly damaged in the deadly 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria last month. Several countries have since sent aid shipments to the city’s airport, including Syria’s ally Iran.
Iran and Syria called the airstrike against the airport earlier this month a “crime against humanity.”
In January, the Syrian army said the Israeli military fired missiles toward Damascus international airport, temporarily putting it out of service and killing two soldiers. That attack came amid Israeli fears that the Damascus airport was being used to funnel weapons from Iran into the country.
Last August, Syria accused Israel of being behind two airstrips in a row at Aleppo International Airport and a site near Damascus Airport, as Israel was said to be stepping up its efforts to target airports to against Tehran’s increased use of commercial flights to bring in military supplies. the country.
