Two soldiers were killed in an Israeli raid that put Damascus International Airport out of service for the second time in less than a year.
The Syrian military said an Israeli airstrike killed at least two Syrian soldiers and put the country’s main international airport out of service.
The army said in a statement carried by the official Syrian News Agency (SANA) that the air strike that targeted Damascus International Airport and its surroundings took place at around 2 am local time on Monday (23:00 GMT Sunday).
The statement added that the attack resulted in “the death of two soldiers, the wounding of two others, and some material losses,” and the airport was taken out of service.
There was no immediate comment from Israel.
This incident is the second time that Damascus International Airport has been out of service in less than a year.
On 10 June, Israeli airstrikes targeting the airport caused severe damage to the infrastructure and runways.
It reopened two weeks later after repairs.
Israel has also bombed other Syrian airports, including a strike in September on the international airport in the city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest and former commercial hub, which knocked it out of service for several days.
Israel has carried out hundreds of raids on targets inside government-controlled areas of Syria in recent years, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations. However, Israel has acknowledged that it is targeting the bases of armed groups allied with Iran, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Monday’s attack comes days after the IDF chief, Maj. Gen. Oded Basiuk, presented the army’s operational forecast for 2023.
“We see our course of action in Syria as an example of how ongoing and continuous military action is shaping and influencing the entire region,” said Basiuk’s presentation, according to the IDF’s tweets.
“We will not accept Hezbollah 2.0 in Syria,” she said.
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