DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syria has confirmed major damage including to runways at Damascus International Airport, which was closed for a second day Saturday for repairs after air strikes by the Zionist regime.
The transport ministry said in a statement that runways were out of service.
Since the foreign-backed war broke out in Syria in 2011, the occupying regime has carried out hundreds of air strikes against Syria, targeting government troops as well as popular anti-terror forces.
But rarely have such attacks caused major flight disruptions.
“Civil aviation and national companies are working... to repair the sizeable damage at the airport,” the ministry said, adding a terminal building was also hit.
The official SANA news agency said the occupying regime’s bombardment wounded a civilian.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the missile strike before dawn on Friday hit one of the runways as well as three arms depots near the airport.
The Observatory said the strikes wounded an undetermined number of people.
Syria’s ally Russia strongly condemned “the provocative Israeli attack against essential civilian infrastructure”.
A spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry called such attacks “an absolutely unacceptable violation of international norms.”
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian spoke by phone and also condemned the attack, SANA reported.
Syria “will defend itself by all legitimate means” against Zionist attacks, Mekdad said.
While the occupying regime rarely comments on individual strikes, it has acknowledged carrying out hundreds in Syria.