Syria PM visits Damascus Airport to oversee repairs after devastating Israeli strikes

Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous visited Damascus Airport on Sunday to assess damage caused by Israeli airstrikes which forced the facility to shut last week.

Arnous was accompanied by ministers and officials to check on repair works at the runway, which started over the weekend.

Regime authorities are rushing to repair runways put out of service from the attack with flights to Damascus redirected to the northern city of Aleppo or cancelled.

Is Israel widening its shadow war against Iran?

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Israeli broadcaster Kan claimed the strikes were to prevent Iranian attempts to smuggle advanced weapons system to its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, which has intervened in the Syrian war on the side of the Assad regime.

Kan said that equipment that could convert ordinary rockets into high-accuracy missiles were being smuggled via Damascus Airport.

Since conflict broke out in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria, targeting regime troops as well as Hezbollah fighters and other Iran-backed militias present in the country.

These attacks have rarely caused major flight disruptions. Only a few airlines have resumed flights to war-torn Syria and many are under European and US sanctions.