By Suleiman Al-Khalidi
AMMAN (Reuters) -Israel launched several rocket strikes on areas in Syria’s Hama province and the coastal Tartous countryside on Sunday, Syrian state media reported.
Rockets flew from across northern Lebanon towards their targets, with three military personnel injured according to the report, which gave no further details. An Israeli military spokesperson declined comment.
An Israeli air strike knocked Aleppo airport out of service on Tuesday and caused “material damage” to the airport, according to Syrian state media.
Western intelligence sources say the airport attack targeted Iranian arms shipments delivered by air under the cover of humanitarian aid and relief air by dozens of planes that were landing at the airport for people affected by last month’s earthquake.
Israel has in recent months intensified strikes on Syrian airports and air bases to disrupt Iran’s increasing use of aerial supply lines to deliver arms to allies in Syria and Lebanon, including Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Israel has for years carried out attacks against what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran’s influence has grown since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war that began in 2011
The strikes are part of an escalation of what has been a low-intensity conflict termed a “war between wars”, whose goal was to slow Iran’s entrenchment in Syria, Israeli military experts say.
Iran’s proxy militias, led by Hezbollah, now hold sway in vast areas in eastern, southern and northwestern Syria and in several suburbs around the capital.
(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Additional reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Editing by Jamie Freed and William Mallard)
