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Iran smuggling missile parts via passenger flights after alleged IAF strike on Damascus airport

Damage to the runways at Damascus International Airport has reportedly prevented Iranian cargo planes from landing there.

The aftermath of an alleged Israeli missile strike on the container yard of Syria's Latakia port, Dec. 28, 2021. Credit: Syrian Arab News Agency.
The aftermath of an alleged Israeli missile strike on the container yard of Syria’s Latakia port, Dec. 28, 2021. Credit: Syrian Arab News Agency.

Iran has resorted to smuggling precision missile components into Syria via hand luggage on European passenger flights, following an alleged Israeli Air Force strike in May that damaged runaways at Damascus International Airport, Israeli media reported on Tuesday.

The alleged Israeli strike was reported by Syrian state media on May 20. Satellite images released by the ImageSat International showed damage to the runways.

“This strike effectively prevents Iran from landing its large Boeing 747 cargo planes at the airport,” Channel 12 reported on Tuesday. “These are the planes that deliver the precision missile systems, which in the end move to Hezbollah,” the report added.

Those planes have not been able to land at the airport since the attack, according to Channel 12.

“I’m scared of what’s going to happen now,” Miri Bar-Halpern, a Jewish psychology lecturer at Harvard Medical School, told JNS. “I can already predict the backlash.”
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