Beirut (dpa) – At least three people were killed in an Israeli missile attack that hit Aleppo’s airport and put it out of service earlier Tuesday, a monitor group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said among the killed was a Syrian officer, adding that the nationalities of the two other people are still unknown.
Earlier the state-run Syrian News Agency (SANA), citing a military source, said that at dawn “the Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression from the direction of the Mediterranean, west of Latakia, targeting Aleppo International Airport, which caused material damage to the airport and put it out of service.”
The war monitor quoted sources as saying the international airport will return to work within the next few days, after specialized teams started maintenance work hours after the strike.
It said that despite Iranian militias controlling the vicinity of Aleppo’s international airport, Iranian shipments or weapons depots were not hit during Tuesday’s strike.
The Israeli military did not comment on the strike.
Israel regularly bombs targets in neighbouring Syria in an effort to prevent arch-rival Iran from expanding its influence there.
The observatory, which has been documenting violence in Syria since war erupted in 2011, said this was the second attack on the airport in six months.
The Syrian Transport Ministry said the damage to the airport would effect relief operations from last month’s earthquakes.
Aleppo’s airport was a main facility to receive aid from countries across the world.
“It was decided to divert the landing of humanitarian relief aid planes for those affected by the earthquake, and the scheduled and programmed flights through Aleppo International Airport to go through the international airports of Damascus and Latakia,” a statement by the ministry said.
Aleppo has been badly damaged in the Syrian civil war. The devastating earthquakes in the Syrian-Turkish border region last month also caused severe damage and claimed lives in the area.
The Syrian Foreign ministry condemned the attack and said it is “a double crime as it targeted a civilian airport … and it targeted one of the main channels for the delivery of humanitarian aid from inside and outside Syria to the victims of the devastating earthquake that hit the area on February 6.”
GNA