Conflicts & War

Israeli attack kills 5 Syrian soldiers near Damascus airport

Damascus, Sep 17 (EFE).- Five Syrian soldiers were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Damascus International airport early on Saturday, said the defense ministry.

The state-run SANA news agency, citing the ministry, said the Israeli forces attacked other Syrian positions that caused material damage in the south of the capital.

A ministry statement said the Israelis carried out airstrikes shortly after midnight, targeting the airport and the south of the city of Damascus.

Syrian air defenses intercepted the attack and shot down most of the missiles.

But some rockets hit the target, killing five soldiers and causing material losses.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which documents war casualties and human rights abuses in the conflict-ravaged nation, said activists monitored Israeli bombings near the airport and in the Damascus countryside.

The nonprofit, based in London with a vast network of collaborators in Syria, noted that it was the 25th Israeli attack in Syrian territories this year.

On Sep 6, Israel targeted Aleppo International Airport and its surroundings, killing three people and wounding five others.

The airport became non-functional for about 72 hours.

That was the second attack on the Aleppo airport in a week.

Israel regularly launches attacks against the neighboring country, accusing it of sheltering pro-Iranian and Lebanese armed groups allied with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Israel rarely acknowledges such attacks.

Its forces, however, say that their attacks target bases of Iran-allied militant groups, like Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Syria has been battling a conflict since 2011, with mass protests against President Assad that snowballed into a civil war, killing hundreds of thousands of people and leaving millions homeless.

The raging Syrian conflict has drawn in foreign powers in the country, dividing it into different control zones. EFE

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