JEDDAH: An Israeli airstrike on Aleppo airport in northern Syria crippled the runway just as an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps cargo plane was ready to land, according to new satellite photographs.
The photographs reveal that Israel has increased its airstrikes on Syrian airports in order to disrupt Iran’s growing use of aerial supply lines to carry supplies to allies in Syria and Lebanon, notably Hezbollah.
A transponder signal on an Antonov An-74 cargo plane flown by Yas Air indicated that it was set to land at the airport shortly before the strike on Wednesday. Yas Air is sanctioned by the US Treasury for delivering weapons on behalf of the Revolutionary Guards.
Israel also struck Damascus airport, damaging equipment, the second such attack since June, when Israeli bombings on the runway rendered it inoperable for two weeks.
According to a regional diplomatic source, the strikes signaled a shift in Israeli targeting. “They began to target facilities utilized by the Iranians to supply munitions to Lebanon,” the insider claimed.
According to Nawar Shaaban, an expert at the Omran Centre for Strategic Studies, the strikes also provide hints as to where Iran is escalating its role. “The worrisome issue is that looking at these affected locations tells us that Iran has spread out more,” he said. “Every time we see a strike land in a new region, we think, ‘Whoah, Israel hit there.'” But we should be shouting, ‘Whoah, Iran is there.'”
Source: the Jerussalem Post
