Damascus Airport Shut Down by Alleged Israeli Airstrike

Syria announced on Friday that it had suspended all flights to and from Damascus International Airport following missile strikes on sites south of the Syrian capital, which Syria’s military attributed to Israel. The Syrian army said in a statement that one civilian was injured in the attack, which took place at 4 am local time (1 am GMT) on Friday. The Syrian Transport Ministry said in a statement that “some technical equipment stopped functioning at the airport,” but did not spell out what equipment or the cause of its malfunction. The ministry said new flight dates would be announced once technical issues were solved. But the state-run SANA news agency said the airport sustained “heavy damage to the airstrips in several localities and to the navigation lights in addition to the damages [that] occurred in the airport lobby.” The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the airport’s northern runway and lighting systems used for planes to navigate, as well as disused passenger halls that had been repurposed for the discreet arrival of senior Iranian and Hizbullah military officials, were damaged during Israeli airstrikes. The strikes also damaged the airport’s control tower, the London-based watchdog added. The airport’s southern runway hasn’t been operational since it was damaged in an airstrike last year that was also attributed to Israel.