Satellite images released Monday showed significant damage to warehouses and office buildings at Damascus International Airport, following airstrikes last Thursday that were attributed to Israel.
The photographs, released by the private satellite imagery analysis firm ImageSat, showed that several warehouses, apparently used to store weapons that were flown into Syria from Iran, were destroyed in the strikes along with multiple buildings used as headquarters for the operations at the site.
In addition, a hangar was damaged in the attack, which Syria blamed on Israel. ImageSat said the shelter was “probably used for storing ammunition or [surface-to-air missiles].”
At approximately 11:45 p.m. last Thursday, incoming missiles struck five weapons depots near Damascus International Airport, including an attack on a military position south of the Syrian capital, the al-Arabiya news channel reported, citing unidentified sources.
The attack came hours after a shipment — reportedly of munitions — arrived at the airport from Tehran, according to flight data.
Four members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and three Syrian soldiers were killed in the strikes, according to a Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.
Both Syria and the Observatory said Israel was behind the strike. The Israeli military did not comment on the matter, in accordance with its long-standing policy of neither confirming nor denying such operations abroad.
Asked about Israel’s alleged involvement in a Friday morning interview to Radio Haifa, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “I don’t comment on one operation or another.
Videos posted to social media by residents of the area showed explosions in mid-air lighting up the night, apparently as Syrian anti-aircraft missiles burst in the sky.
The Syrian state media outlet SANA said the country’s air defenses intercepted many of the incoming missiles, an oft-heard Syrian claim that most defense analysts dismiss as false boasts.
Earlier on Thursday, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened to target both Israel and the United States if they “make the slightest error.”
The late-night strikes came just over a week after a series of strikes on several targets near Damascus reportedly killed 23 pro-Iranian fighters.
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