'Huge' explosion near Damascus Airport: Monitor

'Huge' explosion near Damascus Airport: Monitor

A large explosion hit in the area of Damascus International Airport followed by a fire in the same place early on Thursday the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said.

"The blast was huge and could be heard in Damascus," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Multiple dawn strikes hit an ammunition depot complex near Damascus airport used by Iranian-backed forces supplied via an air corridor between the Syrian capital and Tehran, two senior rebel sources operating in the Damascus areas. They said their monitors operating in the eastern rural outskirts of the capital where the rebels are based had tracked at least five strikes that hit the airport compound at dawn.

They said the attack caused a fire with flames appearing to come from a closed military area of the sprawling complex widely known to be used by Tehran to supply weapons by air to Iranian-backed militias operating alongside the Syrian army. It was not clear if it was a missile or an air strike, they said.

The pro-Hezbollah al-Manar television channel said that an explosion at fuel tanks and warehouses near Syria's Damascus International Airport early on Thursday had likely been caused by an Israeli air strike. It added that initial indications were that the blast had caused only material damage and not deaths.

Hezbollah, an ally of President Bashar al-Assad, is involved in the fighting in Syria's civil war.

(With inputs from Reuters and PTI)

Source http://www.dnaindia.com/node/2418098