Tel Aviv: Israel has intensified the attacks on weapon shipments from Iran to Lebanon via Syria. This in spite a recent Russian warning. The last attack was performed on Tuesday, March 7 and caused damage to one runway of the Aleppo airport. As always, Israel has not reacted to the Syrian reports that its air force performed the attack.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, but Syria’s state news agency SANA, said the airport has been shut down due to the damage sustained from the strike. According to the report, Syria’s air defences were activated but it was not clear if there were any interceptions. Syria regularly claims to intercept Israeli missiles, though military analysts doubt such assertions.
The Israel Defence Forces made no comments, in keeping with their general policy of declining to comment on airstrikes in Syria. Israel is thought to have attacked Damascus and Aleppo airports among other targets inside of government-controlled areas of Syria hundreds of times in recent years, but it rarely admits or talks about the operations.
Israeli sources claimed in the past that some airports in Syria serve the Iranian effort to supply advanced weapons to its proxy, the Hezbollah in Lebanon. The strikes are also aimed at stopping the Iranian militias in Syria from building strongholds in different parts of this country.
Israel has carried out these strikes against a variety of targets in an effort to restrain Iran’s forces in the region because it sees Iran’s expansion throughout Syria as a continuing threat to its national security.
-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
