BEIRUT: Israeli air strikes have killed at least three people and damaged Aleppo airport in northern Syria for the second time in a week, a war monitor said Wednesday.
The strikes carried out on Tuesday evening caused damage to the main runway of Syria’s second largest airport, taking it out of service, the state news agency SANA reported.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that monitors the conflict, said among the targets of the strikes was a warehouse in the airport compound used by Iran-affiliated militia.
“Three people were killed and five were wounded,” the group said, adding that a total of six missiles were fired.
The identities and nationalities of those killed could not be immediately confirmed.
Israel rarely comments on the strikes it carries out against Iranian and allied targets in Syria.
Iranian forces and Shiite militia groups it controls have a significant military presence across Syria and have been a key support to President Bashar Assad’s forces.
Israeli strikes had already caused some damage to Aleppo airport on August 31.
Syria’s private Cham Wings airline announced shortly after Tuesday’s strikes that its flights to and from Aleppo would be re-routed to the capital Damascus, around 300 kilometers (180 miles) to the south.
Three killed in Israeli strikes on Syria airport
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Three killed in Israeli strikes on Syria airport
- Israel missile attack was launched from the Mediterranean Sea, west of the coastal city of Latakia, at 8:16 p.m. local time
- Syrian air defenses intercepted Israeli missiles, downing several of them, state news agency said earlier
First responders enter devastated Aleppo neighborhood after days of deadly fighting
- The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army
ALEPPO, Syria: First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.
The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.
The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”
The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.
Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid Al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.
The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.
On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.
Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.
“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”
Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.
Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.
“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.
