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On Wednesday, March 22, 2023, Aleppo International Airport in northwestern Syria was subjected to an Israeli attack, the second in a month, which caused material damage, according to the official Syrian News Agency (SANA).
These strikes are the second targeting Aleppo airport during the month of March, after the bombing of it on the seventh of this month, which put this vital facility out of service for days after it was a major destination for aid planes arriving in Syria since the devastating earthquake.
“About 3:55 (local time) today, the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack with missiles from the direction of the Mediterranean, west of Latakia, targeting the vicinity of Aleppo airport,” SANA quoted a military source as saying in a statement.
The source added that the attack “caused some material damage at the airport.”
“Technical committees are inspecting the airport’s condition and its readiness to receive today’s planes,” readiness official at the Ministry of Transport Suleiman Khalil told AFP.
For its part, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, “Israeli planes targeted the campus of Aleppo International Airport and a weapons depot belonging to Iranian militias in the vicinity of the airport, which led to its complete destruction.”
The Observatory reported that the airport was “temporarily out of service” as a result of the attack, without information on human casualties.
Since the earthquake that struck the country on February 6, Aleppo International Airport has received 82 relief aid planes, according to the Ministry of Transport.
On March 12, three people were killed as a result of shelling by Israel on several locations in central and western Syria, according to the Observatory.
Over the past years, Israel launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria, targeting Syrian army sites and Iranian and Hezbollah targets, including weapons and ammunition depots in separate areas.
Israel rarely confirms the implementation of strikes in Syria, but it repeats that it will continue to confront what it describes as Iran’s attempts to consolidate its military presence in Syria.
Syria has been witnessing a bloody conflict since 2011, which has caused the death of about half a million people, caused massive damage to infrastructure, and led to the displacement of millions of people inside and outside the country.