Large explosion near Damascus airport, ‘probably’ Israeli strike

A huge explosion hit near Damascus international airport on Thursday setting off large fires, with Syrian regime ally Hizbollah saying it was "probably" the result of an Israeli air strike.
The Lebanese militant group’s Al Manar television said the raid hit a warehouse and fuel tanks, without specifying whether they were its own or belonged to the Syrian army or another of its allies.
The explosion was heard across the capital, jolting residents awake, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdurrahman said.
He said the explosion was reported to have happened near Damascus’s airport road. The incident was also reported by other activists’ networks but the source of the explosion was unclear.
Activist-operated Diary of a Mortar, which reports from Damascus, said the explosion near the airport road was followed by flames rising above the area. A pro-government website Damascus Now said the explosion was near the city’s Seventh Bridge, which leads to the airport road.
Israeli intelligence minister Yisrael Katz said a massive explosion near the airport was consistent with Israel’s policy, but stopped short of confirming his country was behind it.
Israeli jets have hit the airport and other bases around the Syrian capital in the past, targeting what it said were Hizbollah weapons stockpiles, which is allied with the Syrian government.
"We are acting to prevent the transfer of sophisticated weapons from Syria to Hizbollah in Lebanon by Iran," Mr Katz told army radio.
"When we receive serious information about the intention to transfer weapons to Hizbollah, we will act.
"This incident is totally consistent with this policy."
In line with its usual practice, Israel’s military has declined to comment on the incident.
Syria is in the sixth year of a bloody civil war pitting the government of president Bashar Al Assad and his allies against opposition forces that has left more than 400,000 people dead.
The explosion comes a day after France said that the chemical analysis of samples taken from a deadly sarin gas attack in Syria earlier this month "bears the signature" Mr Assad’s government and shows it was responsible.
France came to this conclusion after comparing samples from a 2013 sarin attack in Syria that matched the new ones, foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said. The findings came in a six-page report published on Wednesday.
Russia, a close ally of Mr Al Assad, denounced the report, saying the samples and the fact the nerve agent was used are not enough to prove who was behind it.
The United States has also blamed Mr Assad’s government for the April 4 attack. The Trump administration ordered the cruise missile attack on the airbase and issued sanctions on 271 people linked to the Syrian agency said to be responsible for producing non-conventional weapons.

Source: The National