The attack on Damascus airport on Friday, which according to international media was carried out by Israel, could be seen as a warning message to the Syrian regime that is facilitating Iranian weapons' transfer civilian flights.
A statement by the Syrian Transportation Ministry on Saturday was first to detail the extent of damage from the airstrike.
The Syrian media reported earlier the country had suspended all flights to and from the airport, and the ministry confirmed all flights were halted because “some technical equipment stopped functioning at the airport.”
The UK-based opposition war monitor – The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights - reported on Saturday that the attack damaged the airport's runway, causing a halt to civilian flights.
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Satellite image released by Maxar Technologies shows damage to a runway at Damascus International Airport
(Photo: AFP)
The report also said terminal arrival halls used by Iranians were destroyed, as were a communication's towers, lighting systems and warehouses.
Israel has long claimed that since Iranian flights carrying weapons systems for Hezbollah came under attack, weapons were being sent to Damascus from Iran via European airports and on board civilian flights.
According to the rights group, the warehouses and terminal halls hit were used by Iran not only as VIP facilities, but also in order to store the smuggled weapons, including equipment used to turn rockets into precise missile systems.
Israel, international media reports claim, has been acting militarily against Iran's weapons transfers by striking truck convoys on Syrian soil, near the Iraqi border, as well as further inside the Syrian territory.
As part of the efforts, Iranian naval vessels in the Red Sea have come under strikes attributed to Israel as was the Syrian port of Latakia.
Cargo flights from Iran to Syria apparently had also been attacked, first when they landed at the T4 airfield used by the Syrian military, and later at the Damascus airport.
The Russian Foreign Ministry in a rare statement condemned the attack on the airport.
"We are compelled to reiterate that the ongoing Israeli shelling of the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, in violation of the basic norms of international law, is absolutely unacceptable. We strongly condemn Israel's provocative attack on the most important object of the Syrian civilian infrastructure," the ministry said in a statement.
The IDF, meanwhile, was acting against Iranian efforts of entrenchment on the Syrian Golan Heights by enlisting local Shi'ite militias.
The Iranian efforts also include the provision of civilian services to the Shi'ite population, in order to earn their favor, along with acquisition of land in the area.