Syria: Israeli strikes hit Aleppo airport, killing 1 soldier

Beirut (AP) — Israeli airstrikes targeted the international airport in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo early Tuesday, killing one Syrian soldier and putting the airport out of commission, state media said.

Syria’s state news agency SANA, citing a military official, said two civilians and five other Syrian soldiers were wounded, and that Israel had launched airstrikes on other unnamed targets around Aleppo.

There was no immediate statement from Israeli authorities on the strikes.

The airport has been a key channel for the flow of aid into the country after the Feb. 6 earthquake hit Turkey and Syria, killing over 50,000 people, including more than 6,000 in Syria.

Britain-based opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strike targeted a munitions depot by the airport. It also reported Israeli strikes at a military airport in the Aleppo countryside, though Syrian state media did not report on the matter.

In March Israel struck Aleppo’s airport on two different occasions and put it out of commission for several days.

Israel, which has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment next door, has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of neighboring Syria in recent years, but rarely acknowledges them.

SANA reported on Saturday that Israeli airstrikes over Homs wounded three civilians and that a civilian fuel station caught fire. SOHR said the missiles destroyed an ammunition depot belonging to Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah at a military airport in the countryside of Homs.