BICOM

Syrian and Lebanese media have reported that missile warehouses near Damascus International Airport were targeted in a series of airstrikes on Friday morning.

There were no casualties at the site, but the warehouses sustained considerable damage.

The UK based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights alleges that the Israeli Air Force (IAF) performed at least three sorties from Lebanese air space, which targeted depots filled with weapons that were intended to be transferred to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The IDF have not commented on the incident but last month the outgoing head of the IAF admitted that Israel has hit arms convoys and weapons warehouses in Syria more than 100 times because they contained advanced weaponry due to be transferred to Hezbollah.

The Syrian and Lebanese military both claim the strikes were heard throughout Damascus. There were also reports of secondary blasts, possibly due to the weapons exploding.

It has also been reported that Syria’s air defence system fired a missile at one of the aircraft, but the missile missed its target. The Syrians said they successfully intercepted an Israeli drone that took part in the attack, saying the unmanned aircraft crashed into Syrian territory. The IDF denies this.

Earlier this month, the Syrian army reported that Israel had carried out an airstrike on a military site in Syria’s Hama province. The strike was considered unusual as the site was identified as a Syrian base that included a missile factory as well as a research centre for the development of biological and chemical weapons.

This is the second time in six months that a storage site near the Syrian International Airport has been targeted and attributed to Israel.

Last week Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s red lines in Syria during his address to the UN, saying that “we will act to prevent Iran from establishing permanent military bases in Syria for its air, sea and ground forces. We will act to prevent Iran from producing deadly weapons in Syria or in Lebanon for use against us and we will act to prevent Iran from opening new terror fronts against Israel along our northern border.”