Report: Syrian Intelligence Officer Wounded in Blast Near Israel-Jordan Border

Two people were wounded in an explosion in the southwestern Syrian city of Daraa, Syrian state media reported on Wednesday.

Local residents reported hearing the blast and photographs posted online showed smoke billowing from the city’s center near the borders with Israel and Jordan.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is affiliated with the Syrian opposition and is based in London, reported overnight Wednesday that one of the two people who were injured in the blast was an intelligence officer in the Syrian military.

The watchdog group also claimed that an alleged bomb that caused the blast was planted by operatives in a vehicle and was detonated in the center of Daraa. According to the Observatory, gunfire was then heard in the vicinity.

Meanwhile, the international airport in Damascus was expected to resume flights after nearly two weeks following an Israeli airstrike that caused serious damage to the facility, state media also reported Wednesday.

The outlet quoted the Syrian Transportation Ministry as saying that flights will resume at Damascus International Airport on Thursday, adding that all companies “should schedule their arriving and departing flights as of this date.”

The June 10 Israeli airstrike caused significant damage to infrastructure and runways and rendered the main runway unserviceable.

Work has been ongoing since then to repair the damage and flights have been mostly diverted to the international airport in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.

The IDF has declined to comment on the Damascus airport airstrike. The facility is located just south of the capital, where Syrian opposition activists say Iran-backed terrorists are active and have arms depots.