Tel Aviv: Israel is determined to totally cut the flow of Iranian weapon systems to the Hezbollah in Lebanon via Syria and will attack any Syrian airport serving this flow. On Friday, September 16 night, according to Middle Eastern sources Israel again attacked the airport of Damascus.
According to the Syrian TV, five Syrian soldiers have been killed. The official Syrian news agency, Sana, reported that “our air defences intercepted hostile missiles in the airspace of Damascus and its area, shooting down a number of them.” Syrian claims to regularly deflect Israeli rockets, but in Israel these claims are called “ridiculous lies.”
According to the report, the attack took place at 00:45 am, and the weapons systems were launched from the north-eastern direction of Lake Tiberias, targeting Damascus airport and some points south of Damascus.
The Iran International website operated from London by Iranian opposition reported that two Iranian airlines stopped flights to Syria after an Israeli air strike on June 10 temporarily shut down the Damascus airport.
Western intelligence sources said that Caspian Air and Qeshm Fars Air both have stopped flying to Syria and the only Iranian airline sending planes is Mahan Air, which was sanctioned by the United States in 2011 for transporting weapons to Iranian proxies at the outset of the Syrian civil war.
Caspian Air is also sanctioned by the United States for its links with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and its extraterritorial Quds Force (IRGC-QF). In 2019, the US also sanctioned Qeshm cargo airline as part of Mahan Air and providing material support to the IRGC-QF. All three airlines are believed to have been established and owned by the Revolutionary Guard.
According to information received by Iran International, Mahan Air flights have increased by 30 percent following suspension of service by the other two companies. Aleppo is the destination of most Mahan flights. The same sources said Hamid Arabnejad, the CEO of Mahan Air in a recent trip to Syria took part in the inauguration of a new flight to the Aleppo airport.
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
