Flights resume at Syria's Damascus airport after Israeli air strike

Strike on June 10 caused damage to runways and infrastructure

Damascus International Airport was hit by an Israeli air strike on June 10. AP

Flights were halted after the strike caused 'sizeable damage' to its only operational runway, authorities said. AFP / ImageSat International

The runway will be operational 'within the next few days', Syria's transport minister told local media on June 12. AFP / ImageSat International

Syria's Transportation Ministry said the air strike caused 'significant' damage to infrastructure and rendered the main runway unserviceable until further notice. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights via AP

Flights resumed at Damascus International Airport in Syria on Thursday, almost two weeks after it was seriously damaged by an Israeli air strike.

Private Syrian carrier Cham Wings Airlines said four of its flights took off from the capital, bound for Iraq, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE.

The airport was hit by the air strike on June 10, leaving the main runway unusable and causing damage to infrastructure.

Flights have since been mostly diverted to the international airport in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest.

The airport is just south of Damascus, where Syrian opposition activists say Iran-backed militia are active and have arms depots.

Israel’s military has declined to comment on the air strike.

It has staged hundreds of strikes against targets in Syria over the years, but rarely acknowledges or discusses them. The airport strike marked a major escalation in Israel’s campaign, further ratcheting up tensions between Israel on one side and Iran and its Lebanese ally, the militant Hezbollah group, on the other.

Israel says its targets are the bases of Iran-allied militias, such as Hezbollah. The group has fighters in Syria on the side of President Bashar Assad’s government forces and ships arms believed to be bound for the militias.

On Tuesday, a Cham Wings Airlines flight from the UAE landed at an airport used by Russia’s military in the coastal province of Latakia in western Syria. The flight was the first to land at the airbase since the strike at Damascus airport.

It was also the first Syrian international flight to land there since Russia took it over after joining the war in Syria in September 2015, helping to tip the balance of power in favour of Mr Assad’s forces.