A raid on Tuesday March 7, at dawn, targeted the airport in the city of Aleppo, in northern Syria, putting it out of service, announced the Syrian Ministry of Defense, which attributed the raid to the Israeli neighbor.
“At exactly 2:07 a.m. (12:07 a.m. in Paris)the Israeli enemy carried out an air assault from the Mediterranean, west of Latakia, and targeted Aleppo International Airport”, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement. The strike caused material damage that put the airport out of service, the ministry added, without reporting casualties.
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 transport ministry, told AFP on Tuesday. .
Planes diverted to Damascus and Latakia
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.
Humanitarian 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.
In recent years, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria, targeting regime positions 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.