The Syrian Ministry of Defense announced in a statement the decommissioning of Aleppo airport after an Israeli raid on the morning of March 7. No victims are to be deplored according to the ministry.
An Israeli raid on March 7 at dawn targeted the airport in the city of Aleppo in northern Syria, putting it out of service, the Syrian Ministry of Defense announced. “At exactly 2:07 a.m. (23:07 GMT), the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial assault from the Mediterranean, west of Latakia, and targeted Aleppo International Airport,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement. .
The strike caused material damage that put the airport out of service, the ministry added, without reporting casualties.
Delivery point for humanitarian aid during the last earthquake
Aleppo airport was used to transport foreign humanitarian aid to this city, hard hit by the earthquake which on February 6 devastated several regions of Syria and neighboring Turkey.
More than 80 planes loaded with humanitarian aid have landed at this airport since the earthquake, which killed nearly 6,000 people in Syria, Souleiman Khalil, an official at the Syrian Ministry of Transport, told AFP. He said the tarmac was damaged, but no planes were hit.
“It is no longer possible to accommodate planes loaded with aid until the damage is repaired,” he added.
Aid planes and other flights have been diverted to airports in Damascus and Latakia, according to the transport ministry. According to the official Syrian agency SANA, the Syrian anti-aircraft defense (ACD) went into action against “enemy missiles”. Asked by AFP, an Israeli military spokesman declined to comment.
Aleppo airport, the second largest in the country, was targeted by an Israeli strike in September, following which it remained closed for three days.
In recent years, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria, targeting positions attributed to the Syrian army as well as Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah forces, allies of Damascus and sworn enemies of Israel. The Jewish state, a neighbor of Syria, rarely comments on the strikes on a case-by-case basis, but says it wants to prevent Iran from establishing itself on its doorstep.
