Damascus/Beirut, May 2, (dpa/GNA) – The death toll from an Israeli strike on northern Syria earlier Tuesday has risen to seven, including pro-Iranian militia members, a monitor group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said those killed included three members of a pro-Iranian militia of non-Syrian nationality and four officers from the Syrian government forces.
Earlier the state-run Syrian News Agency (SANA) cited a military source as saying that a military officer was killed and several other people were wounded in the attack.
The attack “also put Aleppo International Airport out of service,” it said.
SANA said Israel carried out “an aerial aggression using waves of missiles from the direction of south-east Aleppo targeting its airport and a number of points in its vicinity.”
The British-based observatory, which has been monitoring the war in Syria since 2011, said several explosions were heard in the area of the airport as well as the nearby al-Nairab military air base.
The attack set an ammunition depot on fire and caused heavy material damage to both airports, the war monitor said.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the war monitoring group, told dpa the targets were ammunition depots for the pro-Iranian militias in the area of Aleppo International Airport.
The Israeli military did not comment on the reports.
Israel regularly bombs targets in neighbouring war-torn Syria in an effort to prevent arch-rival Iran from expanding its influence there.
In March, Israeli warplanes attacked Aleppo airport at least twice, putting the facility temporarily out of service.
According to the observatory, it was the 16th strike on Syria by Israel this year.
GNA