Aleppo airport in Syria out of service after Israeli rocket attack

Air strikes caused damage to runway

Syria's Aleppo International Airport has been the target of Israeli air strikes in the past. AFP

Syria’s Aleppo International Airport is out of service as a result of damage caused by an Israeli rocket attack in the early hours of Wednesday, the transport ministry said.

The runway at the airport and some other facilities were damaged in the attack, the ministry said.

Flights scheduled to land there will be diverted towards Damascus and Latakia until the damage is repaired, it added.

At about “3.55am, the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial aggression with a number of rockets from the direction of the Mediterranean, west of Latakia, that targeted Aleppo International Airport”, the Defence Ministry said earlier.

Earlier in the day, state TV reported that explosions had been heard around Aleppo.

On Wednesday evening, the Israeli army said it had launched an investigation after a drone fell in Syria during a “routine operation”. It said there was no risk of an information leak.

Syrian state media did not immediately report the incident.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, including attacks on airports in Damascus and Aleppo.

However, it rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations.

Other Israeli attacks

On March 7, an Israeli air strike killed three people, putting Aleppo airport out of service and disrupting the flow of aid.

Last month, an Israeli air strike killed 15 people in a Damascus district housing state security agencies.

In January, a missile strike on Damascus International Airport killed two soldiers and led to services being suspended overnight.

However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group that relies on a network of sources on the ground in the Middle East country, said “four fighters, including two Syrian soldiers, were killed”.

In December, Israel made a rare acknowledgement of operations — “not just in Syria” — against what it said were Iranian targets.

Israel has acknowledged that its targets are the bases of Iran-allied militant groups, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support President Bashar Al Assad’s forces.

Aleppo, which suffered widespread destruction during the civil war in Syria, was heavily damaged in the 7.8-magnitude earthquake in February.

Many countries have since sent aid shipments to the city's airport.