DAMASCUS: An Israeli attack on military positions in southwest Syria on Wednesday killed eight soldiers and wounded seven more, the Syrian state news agency (SANA) reported.

Citing a military source, SANA said Israel’s “aerial aggression” targeted a number of military positions near the southwestern city of Deraa. The strike also caused material damage, it reported. The attack took place at around 1:45am on Wednesday.

Israel’s military said earlier that its jets had struck Syrian army infrastructure and mortar launchers early on Wednesday in what it described as a response to rocket launches from Syria towards Israel.

Hours later, Israeli forces struck Aleppo airport in the north, the Syrian defence ministry said.

“Around 1:45am, the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial aggression from the occupied Golan Heights,” the defence ministry said of the strikes that killed eight soldiers.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor with a wide network of sources on the ground in the war-ravaged country, put the number of dead soldiers at 11, including four officers. The strikes “destroyed arms depots and a Syrian air defence radar” and also targeted an infantry unit, it said. Residents in Daraa province said Israeli planes dropped leaflets warning the Syrian army and Palestinian factions not to attack.

On Wednesday afternoon, Israel struck Aleppo airport with Syria’s defence ministry saying the strike came “from the direction of the Mediterranean sea, west of Latakia”.

Transport ministry official Suleiman Khalil said the runway had been targeted by a strike, but without specifying the source. “The same Aleppo airport runway that was targeted before was struck again,” he said.

“The airport was about to finish repairs and schedule flights, but it was once again put out of service.” Israeli strikes had already put Syria’s two main airports in Damascus and Aleppo out of service several times in the past two weeks.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2023