The Syrian government said Aleppo’s airport in northern Syria was put out of service by an Israeli airstrike at dawn, state media and monitor group said on Monday.

The Syrian General Authority of Civil Aviation said because of the Israeli aggression that targeted Aleppo International Airport at dawn, “the airport is now out of service and all scheduled flights were diverted to Damascus and Latakia airports.’’

The agency said its technical teams and engineers had begun inspection of “the damage at the airport runway and started to remove the effects of the aggression in preparation for its repair.’’

The state-run Syrian News agency (SANA), citing a military source said, “At approximately 4:30 a.m. Monday, the Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea, west of Latakia, targeting Aleppo International Airport, causing damage to its runway.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor which has been documenting violence in Syrian since the war that started in 2011, said the Israelis also targeted weapons depots belonging to pro-Iranian militias at the Nairab military airport, which is part of Aleppo airport.

No casualties were reported so far.

Since the beginning of 2023, the observatory said it documented 26 strikes by Israel on Syrian territory, 19 of them by air and seven by land.

The Israeli military did not comment on the attack.

Israel regularly bombs targets in neighbouring Syria claiming to be targeted at preventing archrival Iran from expanding its influence there. 

(dpa/NAN)