Following Israeli attack, Damascus International Airport resumes flights
DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – On Thursday, flights at Damascus International Airport resumed two weeks after an Israel airstrike that caused serious damage to the facility.
The Syrian Ministry of Transport announced on Wednesday that the airport would resume working after two weeks of being out of service.
The ministry said on its Facebook account, “Flights through Damascus International Airport will resume on Thursday morning.”
The Israeli airstrike on June 10 had caused significant damage to runways at the airport, and flights were halted to and from the airport “until further notice.”
As a result, flights were rerouted to Aleppo International Airport and Bassel al-Assad International Airport in Latakia.
A source at the Damascus International Airport said that flights assumed after finishing the renovation works.
First flights will head to Dubai, Cairo, Kuwait and Doha, according to the source.
The Israeli attack on the airport was meant to hinder weapons’ transfer to Lebanon from Iran through Syria on Iranian cargo airlines.
Israeli Defense Forces’ Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee claimed that Sayyed Reza Hashim Safi a-Din, the son-in-law of Iran’s assassinated Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, was behind such operations on civilian flights heading to Damascus.
Adraee accused Iran of “endangering civilians.”
Israel’s Channel 12 reported that targeting Damascus International Airport thwarted about 70% of Iranian arms shipments.
On June 11, Syria’s state-run news agency SANA quoted the Ministry of Transport as saying that the “brute” attack led to suspension of all flights, “since it caused heavy damages to the airstrips, navigational lights and a hall inside the airport.”
Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a rare public rebuke, condemned the attack, describing it as “provocative” and a “violation of the basic norms of international law.”
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes inside Syria over the past few years targeting what it says Iranian-backed militia’s strongholds.
It rarely acknowledges or comments on carrying out airstrikes inside Syria but it always repeats it will confront Iran’s attempts to establish permanent military presence inside Syria.