Aleppo Airport harboring secretive Iranian unit – Saudi report
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The Aleppo International Airport warehouses targeted by the Israeli Air Force on May 1 belonged to a secret Iranian unit, Saudi Arabian media reported yesterday.
Israeli aircraft had bombed the airport’s runway as well as two warehouses located close to the airport on the night of May 1, killing a Syrian soldier and injuring seven other individuals, according to Syria’s state news agency. The attack was carried out a day before Iran’s President, Ebrahim Raisi, was set to visit.
Saudi media reports that the warehouses were used by Unit 18340, a secretive Iranian-Syrian group which produces precision missiles. According to the Jerusalem Post, the group also supplies and tests new weapons for the ‘Syrian Corps’ within the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds forces.
Al-Mayadeen TV, a Lebanese news site, reported that Israeli airstrikes on May 1 also targeted the city of al-Safirah, 13km south of Aleppo Airport. Al-Safirah is home to an ammunition plant and is known to harbor Iranian forces.
Al-Safirah had been bombed before. Israel carried out attacks in July 2021, as well as September and May 2020. Turkey allegedly bombed the al-Safirah ammunition plant in February 2020 in response to Syrian attacks against Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly al-Nusra Front) in Idlib, northwest Syria.