Damascus airport runways unusable after Israeli attack on Syrian capital

The airport was closed for a second day on Saturday for repairs

All flights to and from Syria's capital were halted after Israeli air strikes wounded at least one civilian and caused damage to an airport runway. AFP

Syria's Damascus International Airport was closed for a second day on Saturday for repairs following Israeli air strikes.

Heavy damage was inflicted on a runway, the Syrian Transport Ministry said.

Civil aviation personnel and companies were working to repair the damage, the ministry said.

Air traffic will be resumed as soon as repairs are completed, it said.

The Israeli bombardment wounded a civilian, the official Sana news agency said.

The missile strikes before dawn on Friday hit one of the runways as well as three arms depots near the airport belonging to Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.

The attack wounded an undetermined number of people, said the monitor, which relies on a network of sources within Syria.

Satellite images posted on Twitter by the Israeli firm ISI showed three separate areas of what it said was “extensive damage to both military and civilian runways” caused by the attacks.

A Syrian Air Airbus A340-300 at the Damascus International Airport. Reuters

According to the observatory, the damaged runway was the only one still operational after an Israeli attack last year put another one out of service.

The 2021 bombardment had targeted weapons shipments and arms depots operated by Iran-backed groups, the monitor claimed.

The airport is in a region south of Damascus where Iran-backed groups, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, regularly operate.

The vicinity of the facility is a regular target for Israel, which has launched 15 aerial attacks on Syria this year and regularly accuses Iran of using Damascus airport to send weapons shipments to its allies.

Syrian state media had reported that a volley of missiles was fired from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights at about 4.20am local time on Friday.

Strikes condemned by Russia

Syria's ally Russia strongly condemned “the provocative Israeli attack against essential civilian infrastructure”.

A representative of Russia's Foreign Ministry called such attacks “an absolutely unacceptable violation of international norms”.

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian spoke by phone and also condemned the attack, Sana reported.

Syria “will defend itself by all legitimate means” against Israeli attacks, Mr Mekdad said.

On May 20, Israeli surface-to-surface missiles from the Golan Heights killed three people near Damascus, state media said at the time, quoting a military source.

Those strikes were against Iranian positions and weapon depots near Damascus, starting a fire near one of the positions close to the airport, the observatory said.