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Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat
World
Damascus – Asharq Al-Awsat

Damascus Airport Resumes Operations

A health worker sprays sanitizer on a passenger at Damascus International Airport (Reuters)

The Syrian Transportation Ministry announced Wednesday that the Damascus International Airport will resume its operations on June 23, two weeks after Israeli air strikes damaged the airstrip and a terminal, which resulted in halting operations there.

The Syrian authorities had to suspend flights and undertake major repairs after Israeli air strikes on June 10 had damaged the runways, the control tower, reception rooms and hangars, AFP reported.

"Damascus International Airport is back in service as of tomorrow," the Syrian Transportation Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that all air carriers can schedule their incoming and outgoing flights via the airport starting Thursday.

“The airport will operate with all its capacity to serve passengers and operating companies after finishing repairs of damages caused by the Israeli aggression,” the Ministry added.

The airport is located south of the capital Damascus.

Besides the extensive damage caused to civilian and military runways, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the strikes had targeted nearby warehouses used as weapons depots by Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah.

It said that since early 2022, Israel has carried out 15 air strikes against its northern neighbor.

AFP reported that Israel has staged hundreds of strikes over the years against Syrian government troops as well as allied Iran-backed forces and fighters from the Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

A decade of war in Syria has left nearly half a million people dead and millions of internally displaced persons and refugees.

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