A loud explosion hit close to the Damascus International Airport in Syria Thursday, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The explosion “shook the Damascus International Airport area at dawn today. A thud could be heard in Damascus city and surrounding areas,” a statement from the monitoring group’s founder, Rami Abdulrahman, reads.
“A fire broke out in the area but the cause of the explosion is still unknown,” Abdulrahman said.
Two Damascus residents who spoke to CNN reported hearing a massive explosion near the airport.
Civil war broke out in Syria in 2011 after an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad but escalated as militant groups and regional players such as Iran, Turkey Russia and Israel became involved.
Syrian state television reported Thursday that missiles had hit a military site southwest of the airport, quoting a military source. The missiles caused explosions and material losses, state TV said. The report blamed Israel for the missile strike.
Incident ‘compatible with Israeli policy’
Israel’s Intelligence Minister Israel Katz appeared to back up claims that Israel was responsible for the explosion in an interview with Army Radio Thursday.
“I can confirm that the incident in Syria is completely compatible with the Israeli policy of operating to prevent the smuggling advanced weaponry from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon by Iran,” Katz said in response to a question on the incident.
“I don’t want to go any further as is natural in these circumstances but this event is completely compatible with our declared policy, a policy which we carry out as the Prime Minister has said, at any moment that we receive intelligence that shows the intent to pass advanced weapons to Hezbollah.”
When pushed by the interviewer that this was a claim of responsibility for the attack, Katz said: “I did not say that, I said what I said.”
Separately, a spokesperson for the IDF told CNN the army had no comment on reports that Israel was responsible.
Hezbollah in Syria
Hezbollah is a Lebanese militant group and political party, funded and supplied by Iran.
The group is at odds with Israel over territory along the Lebanon-Israel border. It also supports the Assad regime, committing thousands of fighters to battle alongside Assad’s forces
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last April confirmed that his country had struck Syria “dozens of times.”
On Wednesday, Israel’s Defense Ministry said Minister of Defense Avigdor Liberman had discussed the situation in Syria with Russia’s Defense and Foreign Ministers during an international conference in Moscow.
Liberman had expressed his concern about Iran’s use of Syrian grounds to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah and said Israel would not allow the concentration of Iranian and Hezbollah forces on the Golan Heights border, the ministry said in a statement.
Regional involvement in Syria
Last month, Syria fired anti-aircraft missiles at Israeli military jets. The Syrian military said the Israeli jets struck a military site near Palmyra, while Israel said they targeted a weapons shipment to Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Netanyahu released a video statement after the strike saying: “When we identify attempts to transfer advanced weapons to Hezbollah and we have intelligence and it is operationally feasible, we act to prevent it.”
Leaving earlier that month for talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Netanyahu said: “Iran is trying to establish itself permanently in Syria, with a military presence on the ground and at sea, and also a gradual attempt to open a front against us on the Golan Heights.”
