CAIRO: An Israeli air strike targeted Syria's Aleppo airport causing some "material damage" to it, the Syrian defense ministry said in a statement on Facebook early on Wednesday.

Israel has for years been carrying out attacks against what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran's influence has grown since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war that started in 2011.

In the third attack on Aleppo airport in six months, Israel launched "a number of missiles from the Mediterranean Sea, west of the coastal city of Latakia, at 3:55 a.m." the ministry added.

(Reporting by Enas Alashray; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Christian Schmollinger)