Israeli air strikes targeted a military depot leading to a huge explosion and fire near the Damascus International Airport in the wee hours of Thursday. The military site was reportedly operated by the Lebanese Hezbollah group.
A fuel tank and warehouses were damaged in the strike, BBC reported. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a huge explosion was heard across the capital in the early hours of Thursday jolting residents awake. The blast was believed to have taken place close to the main road that leads to the airport.
Israel said the blast was "consistent" with its policy to prohibit Iran from smuggling weapons to Hezbollah, BBC reported.
Witnesses were quoted by Al Jazeera as saying that five strikes took place near the airport road located about 25 kms from Damascus on Thursday. A military source told a Syrian state TV that rockets were fired from the Israeli territory targeting an army area in the southwestern part of the airport causing huge explosions.
Intelligence Minister Israel Katz told Israeli Army Radio: "I can confirm that the incident in Syria corresponds completely with Israel's policy to act to prevent Iran's smuggling of advanced weapons via Syria to Hezbollah in Iran. Naturally, I don't want to elaborate on this."
"The prime minister has said that whenever we receive intelligence that indicated an intention to transfer advanced weapons to Hezbollah, we will act," Katz added.
The army depot that was targeted deals with a significant amount of weapons that Tehran sends by air on a regular basis, an intelligence source told Reuters. Tehran is an important regional ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The source added that the depot supplies a major portion of the weapons to several Iranian backed armed groups led by Hezbollah, which consists of thousands of fighters who are involved in a battle against Syrian rebels.
