- Exclusive: Rocket strike in Damascus hit Iranian military experts, sources say Reuters
- Report: Israeli strike on Syria this week targeted visiting Iranian officials The Times of Israel
- United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria a.i., Mike Robson, statement on strikes on central Damascus – Syrian Arab Republic ReliefWeb
- Israeli Airstrikes Kill 15 in Damascus; U.S. Says It Killed ISIS Leader in Syria Raid Democracy Now!
- Israel attacks Iranian targets in Syria as shadow war heats up between the two adversaries: report Fox News
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Tag Archives: Damascus
Israeli missile strikes put Damascus airport out of service
BEIRUT — Israel’s military fired missiles toward the international airport of Syria’s capital early Monday, putting it out of service and killing two soldiers and wounding two others, the Syrian army said.
The attack, which occurred shortly after midnight Sunday, was the second in seven months to put the Damascus International Airport out of commission. It caused material damage in a nearby area, the army said, without giving further details.
Syria’s Ministry of Transport said work to repair the damage began immediately and later Monday, some flights resumed while work in other parts of the airport continued.
Israel has targeted airports and ports in government-held parts of Syria in an apparent attempt to prevent arms shipments from Iran to militant groups backed by Tehran, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
An opposition war monitor reported the Israeli strikes hit the airport as well as an arms depot close to the facility south of Damascus. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four people were killed in the strike.
The conflicting reports could not immediately be reconciled.
The Observatory said the runway used for civilian flights was fixed while another, used for cargo transport, remains out of service. That runway is also used by Iran-backed backed groups, the Observatory added.
Later on Monday, Syria’s Foreign Ministry said the strikes are “part of a series of Israeli crimes” targeting Syria. The ministry, in a statement, called on the U.N. Security Council to condemn the “Israeli crimes and aggressions” adding that those responsible should be held accountable and such attacks should not be repeated.
There was no comment from Israel.
Syrian state TV reported that the private Cham Wings resumed flights while the flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed a flight by Iraq’s private Fly Baghdad coming from the Iraqi city of Najaf was about to land shortly around 9 a.m. in Damascus.
On June 10, Israeli airstrikes that struck Damascus International Airport caused significant damage to infrastructure and runways. It reopened two weeks later after repairs.
In September, Israeli airstrikes hit the international airport of the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest and once commercial center, also putting it out of service for days.
In late 2021, Israeli warplanes fired missiles that struck the port of Latakia hitting containers and igniting a huge fire.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.
Israel has acknowledged, however, that it targets bases of Iran-allied militant groups, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.
Thousands of Iran-backed fighters have joined Syria’s 11-year civil war and helped tip the balance of power in Assad’s favor.
Israel says an Iranian presence on its northern frontier is a red line that justifies its strikes on facilities and weapons inside Syria.
Syria says Israel strike puts Damascus airport briefly out of service
AMMAN, Jan 2 (Reuters) – The Syrian army said on Monday an Israeli missile strike had briefly put the Damascus International Airport out of service, the latest in a string of strikes targeting Iran-linked assets.
A volley of air-launched missiles had hit the airport at 2 a.m., the army said in a statement. They had come from the direction of Lake Tiberias in Israel.
Missiles had also hit targets in the south of Damascus, killing two members of the Syrian armed forces and causing some damage, the army said.
The transport ministry said in an online statement that workers had removed debris from the strikes and that flights would resume by 9 a.m.
Earlier, two regional intelligence sources said the strikes had hit an outpost near the airport of Iran’s Quds Force and militias it backs. Their presence has spread in Syria in recent years.
The Israel Defence Force did not immediately comment on the attack.
Last year, Israel intensified strikes on Damascus International and other civilian airports to disrupt Tehran’s increasing use of aerial supply lines to deliver arms to allies in Syria and Lebanon, including Hezbollah.
Syria halted flights to and from the airport in June for nearly two weeks after Israeli strikes caused extensive damage to infrastructure, including a runway and a terminal.
Israel fired missiles at Damascus International again in September, when it also struck the country’s second-largest civilian airport in the northern city of Aleppo, putting it out of operation for several days.
Western and regional intelligence sources say Tehran has adopted civilian air transportation as a more reliable means of ferrying military equipment to its forces and to allied fighters in Syria, following Israeli disruption of ground supply.
Israel says its so-called “campaign between wars” in Syria began a decade ago, on Jan 30, 2013, with a strike against Russian-supplied SA-17 air-defence batteries that Damascus had intended to hand over to Hezbollah.
Four such strikes took place that year, but the pace had accelerated to around one a week currently, the chief of Israel’s armed forces, Lieutenant-General Aviv Kohavi, said last month.
Iran’s proxy militias, led by Lebanon’s Hezbollah, now hold sway in vast areas in eastern, southern and northwestern Syria and in several suburbs around the capital.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government has never publicly acknowledged that Iranian forces operate on his behalf in Syria’s civil war, saying Tehran has only military advisers on the ground.
Kohavi last month claimed credit for an air strike on a convoy that had entered Syria from Iraq, saying the target had been a truck carrying Iranian weaponry. read more
Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Bradley Perrett
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Israeli raid shuts down Damascus airport, says Syrian military | News
Two soldiers killed as Israeli raid puts Damascus International Airport out of service for the second time in less than a year.
Syria’s military says an Israeli air raid has killed at least two Syrian soldiers and put the country’s main international airport out of service.
The air raid, which targeted the Damascus International Airport and its surroundings, took place at about 2am local time on Monday (23:00 GMT Sunday), the military said in a statement carried by the official SANA news agency.
The attack resulted in the “death of two soldiers, the wounding of two others, some material losses” and put the airport out of service, the statement said.
There was no immediate comment from Israel.
The incident marked the second time the Damascus International Airport was put out of service in less than a year.
On June 10, Israeli air raids that hit the airport caused significant damage to infrastructure and runways.
It reopened two weeks later after repairs.
Israel has carried out hundreds of raids on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations. Israel has acknowledged, however, that it targets bases of Iran-allied armed groups, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.
Monday’s attack comes days after the head of the Israeli military, Major General Oded Basiuk, presented the army’s operational outlook for 2023.
“We see that our course of action in Syria is an example of how continuous and persistent military action leads to shaping and influencing the entire region,” said tweets by the military on Basiuk’s presentation.
“We will not accept Hezbollah 2.0 in Syria.”
Syria says Israeli airstrikes target Damascus, south
Syria said Israeli missiles targeted areas near Damascus late Friday, the first alleged Israeli airstrike on the country in over a month.
State media claimed that missiles were shot down over the capital and closer to the border with Israel.
“Our air defenses intercepted Israeli missile strikes in the airspace of Damascus and the southern region,” Syria’s official news agency SANA said.
The alleged attack would be the first since September 17, when an apparent Israeli strike around the capital Damascus killed five soldiers last month.
In June, Israeli airstrikes put Damascus airport out of service for nearly two weeks.
A pair of sorties targeting the Aleppo airport in early September also forced that facility to shut down.
The alleged strike comes a day after Israel’s military launched a week-long drill across the country’s north.
Since civil war erupted in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes against its northern neighbor, targeting government troops as well as allied Iran-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters. Syria regularly claims to have intercepted most Israeli missiles, which analysts generally dismiss as empty boasts.
While Israel rarely comments on individual strikes, it has acknowledged carrying out hundreds.
It says its air campaign is necessary to stop arch-foe Iran gaining a foothold on its doorstep.
The rare lull in strikes coincided with high-stakes negotiations to settle a longstanding maritime dispute between Israel and Lebanon that ended in an agreement earlier this month. A brief hiccup in the talks had briefly raised tensions along the northern frontier with Lebanon-based Hezbollah.
Earlier this week, a senior Israeli defense official and two senior Western diplomats told the New York Times that Russia had removed its S-300 anti-aircraft system from Syria to bolster its war effort against Syria, a move that could give Israel more freedom over Syria’s skies even as ties with Moscow have cratered.
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Israel attacks Damascus airport, five soldiers killed, Syria says
Israeli kids play next to an Israeli flag next to the Israeli Syrian border at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel July 23, 2018. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo
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DAMASCUS, Sept 17 (Reuters) – Israel carried out an airstrike on Syria’s Damascus International airport and other positions south of the capital, killing five soldiers and causing material damage, the ministry of defence said early on Saturday.
Syrian air defences intercepted the attack and managed to down most of the missiles, a ministry statement said.
There was no immediate confirmation whether the strike had affected airport operations.
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Israel’s military said it did not comment on foreign reports.
Israel has intensified strikes on Syrian airports to disrupt Iran’s increasing use of aerial supply lines to deliver arms to allies in Syria and Lebanon including Hezbollah, regional diplomatic and intelligence sources told Reuters.
Tehran has adopted air transport as a more reliable means of ferrying military equipment to its forces and allied fighters in Syria, following disruptions to ground transfers.
Hundreds of thousands of people have died and millions have been made homeless since protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2011 developed into a civil war that drew in foreign powers and left Syria carved into zones of control.
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Reporting by Kinda Makieh and Enas Alashray and Nayera Abdallah; Writing by Moataz Mohamed; Editing by Chris Reese, Grant McCool and William Mallard
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Russia lashes Israel as satellite images show ‘disabled’ Damascus airport after raid
In an unusually bitter condemnation, Russia lashed out at Israel Friday following a pre-dawn strike blamed on Israel at Damascus Airport.
An Israeli satellite intelligence firm published images showing significant damage to the runways, which it said disabled the entire airport.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Friday evening condemned the “vicious practice” of Israeli strikes on civilian infrastructure, which it said were “provocative” and “in violation of the basic norms of international law.”
Israel frequently targets Iran-tied facilities and convoys in Syria, and relies on a “deconfliction mechanism” agreed with Moscow to avoid direct confrontation with Russian forces there. Israel’s ties with Russia are being strained by the Ukraine conflict, however, and Friday’s bitter comments from Russia about the Syrian strike underlined the rising friction.
Syria’s state media reported that Israeli jets struck targets south of Damascus at around 4:20 a.m on Friday, wounding one person and causing material damage. Hours later, the country’s Transport Ministry announced that it would suspend incoming and outgoing flights at the airport, citing technical disruptions.
Israel made no official comment on the incident.
ImageSat International (ISI) said the strikes “completely disabled” operations at both the airport’s runways. Each runway appeared to have been struck three times.
In separate missile strikes in April and May, other sections of one of the runways were damaged in attacks attributed to Israel. According to ISI, those strikes shortened the length of the runway significantly and prevented large planes from landing.
Friday’s strike “disabled the entire airport until repair,” ISI said.
Israel has repeatedly charged Iran with smuggling weapons and missile-improving systems from Tehran to its Lebanese terror proxy Hezbollah using civilian flights via Syria.
This photo released by ImageSat International on June 10, 2022, shows Syria’s Damascus International Airport after an airstrike attributed to Israel (ImageSat International)
Last month, the Israel Defense Forces’ Arabic-language spokesperson alleged that the son-in-law of assassinated Iran Revolutionary Guards Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani was behind such operations.
Avichay Adraee accused Iran and Hezbollah of “endangering civilians” by smuggling the armaments via civilian flights to Damascus International Airport in order “to maintain secrecy.”
Israel has staged hundreds of strikes on targets in Syria over the years but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations. It says it targets bases of Iran-allied militias, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah group that has fighters deployed in Syria backing Assad’s government forces, as well as arms shipments believed to be bound for various proxies.
Israeli strikes have continued in Syrian airspace, which is largely controlled by Russia, even as ties with Moscow have deteriorated in recent weeks. Israel has found itself at odds with Russia as it has increasingly supported Ukraine while seeking to maintain freedom of movement in Syria’s skies.
Late Monday night, Syrian state media reported that Israeli missiles targeted Syrian army positions south of Damascus, causing damage but no casualties. Also this week, Israeli tanks reportedly shelled a Syrian military position in a demilitarized part of the Golan Heights.
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Israeli airstrikes said to hit Hezbollah targets near Damascus
Israeli jets carried out airstrikes against targets near the Syrian capital of Damascus early Monday morning, Syrian state TV reported.
The pro-opposition group, the Syrian Observatory For Human Rights, said the targets of the attack were Hezbollah positions, outposts and weapon depots, northeast of Damascus.
The alleged strikes were the first since Russia announced last week it was carrying out joint military jet patrols with the Syrian air force of the airspace along Syria’s borders, including in the Golan Heights area.
Syrian state media SANA said the strikes caused “material damage,” but did not elaborate further. Israeli airstrikes generally target arms shipments from Iran to its proxies in Syria and Lebanon, notably the Hezbollah terrorist militia.
There were no official reports of casualties, but the UK-based Syrian Observatory said it suspected that there were some, without offering a precise figure or their nationalities.
According to SANA, the Israeli missiles were fired at approximately 3 a.m. from aircraft flying near Beirut.
The SANA report said the Syrian military’s air defenses were activated in response to the strike. The state broadcaster alleged that several of the incoming missiles were intercepted, but analysts generally dismiss such claims — heard after nearly every Israeli airstrike — as false, empty boasts.
Israel has staged hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled Syria over the years but rarely acknowledges or discusses specific operations. Many of the strikes in the past targeted the main airport in the capital Damascus, through which Iran is believed to transfer advanced arms to its proxies.
Israel has acknowledged that it targets the bases of Iranian forces and Iran-allied terror groups, particularly along the Golan border, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has fighters deployed in southern Syria. It says it also attacks arms shipments believed to be bound for those groups.
Hezbollah is fighting on the side of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces in the decade-long civil war.
In December, Israel reportedly carried out two high-profile strikes on the Syrian port of Latakia.
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, flames rise from containers at the scene of missiles attack, at the seaport of the coastal city of Latakia, Syria, early December 28, 2021. (SANA via AP)
Last week Russia carried out a joint air patrol with the Syrian air force along the border with Israel, prompting speculation that Israel would be more hesitant to strike Syria.
Following the patrol, Ynet reported that Israeli military officials were holding talks with Russian army officers to calm tensions.
According to the report, Israeli officials were struggling to understand why Russia, which announced that such joint patrols were expected to be a regular occurrence moving forward, had apparently changed its policy toward Israel.
The report claimed, without citing a source, that Israel may limit its air campaign in Syria as a result of Russia’s move, even after discussions end.
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Israel said to hit targets near Damascus in rare daytime Syria strike
Israel targeted a number of locations surrounding Damascus in a rare daytime strike on Saturday, according to Syrian media reports.
The state SANA news site said the strikes were carried out using surface-to-surface missiles fired from northern Israel and that explosions were heard in the countryside surrounding the Syrian capital.
SANA said two Syrian soldiers were injured and there was “material damage” after the country’s air defense systems were activated against “hostile targets from the direction of occupied lands,” an apparent reference to Israel.
The news site claimed that the missiles were “repelled.”
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition group of unclear funding, said Saturday’s raid destroyed arms and ammunition depots belonging to Iranian forces and allied militias in Qudsaya and Dimas.
Although not unheard of, daytime strikes on Syrian targets are relatively rare.
Photos reportedly of the rare daytime Israeli airstrikes near Damascus. pic.twitter.com/0lNoHCePF8
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) October 30, 2021
There was no comment from the Israel Defense Forces, in line with its policy of only publicly acknowledging strikes that are in response to attacks from Syria.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes inside Syria over the course of the country’s civil war, targeting what it says are suspected arms shipments believed to be bound for Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group, which is fighting alongside Syrian government forces.
On Monday, Syrian media said Israeli missiles struck targets connected to the Hezbollah terror group on the outskirts of the town of al-Baath as well as other locations in southern Syria.
The three sites were all reportedly connected to Hezbollah’s so-called Golan File, its efforts to establish a front along the Golan border from which it can carry out attacks against Israel.
According to Syrian media, two of the sites were observation posts used by the Lebanese terror group, while the third target was a site just next to a Syrian military facility that Israel has long claimed was working with Hezbollah, the offices of Cpt. Bashar al-Hussein, commander of a reconnaissance company in the Syrian army’s 90th Brigade.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-Syrian opposition organization of unclear funding, said the strikes caused “material damage,” but there was no immediate word on casualties.
Later on Monday morning, in a tacit threat, the Israeli military reportedly dropped leaflets in the Syrian Golan mentioning Hussein by name and warning Syrian troops to avoid cooperating with Hezbollah. The IDF did not immediately confirm dropping the fliers, but the pages were marked with the eagle symbol of the Israeli military’s 210th “Bashan” Division, which defends that area of the border with Syria.
#القنيطرة
استمرار الطيران الاسرائيلي بإلقاء المناشير التي تفضح مواقع وتحركات ميليشيات حزب الله اللبناني على القرى القريبة من السياج الاسرائيلي في القنيطرة بعد استهداف لثلاث مواقع في ليلة أمس. pic.twitter.com/DdhUDSI2xx— Nour Abo Hasan (@nourabohsn) October 25, 2021
The alleged attack on the sites near Damascus comes a week after Israel said it received a green light from Russian President Vladimir Putin to keep up its airstrikes in Syria.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Putin agreed during a meeting in Sochi last week that the two nations would continue to implement the so-called deconfliction mechanism that works to prevent Israeli and Russian forces from clashing in Syria, a senior Israeli official said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speak during their meeting in Sochi, Russia, on October 22, 2021. (Evgeny Biyatov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
“The prime minister presented his world view on ways to stop Iran’s nuclear drive and Iran’s entrenchment in Syria,” he said in a statement. “It was decided to keep policies vis-à-vis Russia in place (regarding airstrikes in Syrian territory,)” said Housing Minister Ze’ev Elkin, who accompanied Bennett to act as a translator and adviser.
Russia is a close ally of Syria’s Bashar Assad, has forces based and operating in Syria, and also provides Syria with its air defenses that try and shoot down Israeli jets and missiles.
Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.
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Bus bombs kill 14 in Syria capital; shells elsewhere kill 10
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Two bombs attached to a bus carrying Syrian troops exploded in Damascus during the morning rush hour Wednesday, a military official said. Fourteen people were killed in the attack, one of the deadliest in the capital in years.
While the Syrian government’s decade-long conflict with insurgents continues in parts of the country including the rebel-held northwest, bombings in Damascus have become exceedingly rare since President Bashar Assad’s troops pushed opposition fighters from the capital’s suburbs in 2018.
The explosions, which also left several wounded, happened at a busy intersection, near a main bus transfer point where commuters and schoolchildren typically converge. After the blasts, Syrian state TV showed footage of smoke rising from a charred bus as soldiers hosed down the vehicle and onlookers flocked to a nearby bridge to watch.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but several insurgent and jihadist groups that seek to overthrow Assad are active in Syria.
Separately, rescue workers reported 10 people were killed, including four children and a woman, in government shelling of a town in the last rebel enclave in the country’s northwest. The U.N. Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator Mark Cutts described as “shocking” the reports of the shelling that hit a market and roads near schools as students were heading to classes.
That was one of the most violent attacks in the area since a March 2020 truce in the northwest negotiated by Turkey and Russia — allies of the opposition and Syrian government, respectively. The truce has been repeatedly violated, and government forces often vow to take territories still out of their control.
While fighting still rages in the northwest, Assad’s forces now control much of Syria after military support from his allies Russia and Iran helped tip the balance of power in his favor. U.S. and Turkish troops, meanwhile, are deployed in part’s of the country’s north.
In recent years, attacks such as Wednesday’s have been rare in Damascus. One of the last major explosions to take place there was in 2017 — when suicide bombers hit a judicial office building and a restaurant, killing nearly 60 people. The attacks were claimed by Islamic State group militants. The extremist organization has not held territory in Syria since 2019, but it continues to represent a threat with sleeper cells, mostly hiding in Syria’s expansive desert.
State media initially described the Damascus attack as a roadside bombing. But they later quoted an unnamed Syrian military official as saying that bombs were attached to the vehicle’s exterior. A third bomb fell from the bus and was dismantled by troops after the two initial explosions, the official said. It is typical for the government to release information using anonymous sources in state media.
“It is a cowardly act,” Damascus police commander Maj. Gen. Hussein Jumaa told state TV, adding that a police force had cordoned off the area immediately and made sure there were no more bombs.
Jumaa said 14 people were killed, including one person who was initially listed as wounded but later died.
It was not immediately clear if all the dead were bus passengers. The military official said the bombs went off shortly before 7 a.m. Over an hour later, workers had cleared the scene, and the burnt-out bus was removed.
Wednesday’s shelling in the northwest hit the town of Ariha, in Idlib province, which is mostly controlled by rebel groups, including the dominant Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, once affiliated with al-Qaida.
The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as White Helmets, said aside from the 10 killed, 20 more were wounded when dozens of shells landed in the town. The rescuers said they were still searching through the wreckage for survivors.
Syria’s conflict began in March 2011 and has left between 350,000 and 450,000 people dead and displaced half the country’s population, including five million who are refugees abroad.
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Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Sarah El Deeb in Beirut also contributed.