Illustrative image. (Israeli Defense Forces)
A Turkish official denied Israeli reports that Ankara is seeking to establish a military presence at an air base in northwestern Syria, which was struck early on August 18.
At least eight Israeli strikes hit Abu al-Duhur air base in the early morning hours, with Syria condemning what it described as an “unjustified” attack.
“There was no Turkish presence at the airbase. Israel is inventing pretexts to bomb neighboring countries and destabilize the region,” a Turkish official told the Axios news site.
Since former President Bashar al-Assad was overthrown in late 2024, the base, heavily damaged during the country’s 14-year civil war, has been used as a training center for Syria’s new military. However, satellite images taken by the European Union’s Sentinel-2 in recent months revealed that both of the air base’s runways were being refurbished.
Hebrew media reports claimed that the Israeli strikes were meant to prevent Turkey from taking over the important air base.
Israel has been seeking to prevent Turkish military entrenchment in Syria, and in the past has carried out several strikes purportedly in order to stop Ankara from taking over other bases in the country’s central and western regions and hinder its efforts to support the new military there.
An Israeli official told Fox News that the United States was notified in advance of the attack on the air base and shared sensitive intelligence on the matter.
“Highly sensitive intelligence was shared with the United States in advance, at the most senior levels of the various agencies and bodies,” the official said, adding that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa “understands that he cannot operate like the previous Syrian regime, which maintained proxy forces. It’s possible that he didn’t understand what was going on, or didn’t know.”
The official declined to provide the American news channel with additional details, “due to the highly classified nature of the intelligence.”
The first official Israeli acknowledgment of the attack came from the official of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which said in a statement “Israel and Syria agreed to a status quo in security matters, which Syria was on the verge of breaching by permitting Turkish troops to deploy at an air base near Aleppo.”
“Israel repeatedly warned Syria that such a deployment would pose a threat to Israel’s security. Syria chose to ignore these warnings,” the statement reads. “Israel will not tolerate threats to its security, and would welcome a return to the status quo.”
The strikes drew condemnation from across the region, with the Turkish foreign ministry urging the international community to take a stronger stance against what it called Israel’s violations of international law.
“We strongly condemn the airstrikes carried out by Israel” overnight, the ministry said in a Turkish-language statement, adding, “We call on the international community to adopt a more resolute stance in order to bring an end to Israel’s aggression against Syria… and to ensure accountability for these actions, which disregard international law.”
Israel’s relations with Turkey worsened as a result of the war in the Gaza Strip, and while the fall of the Assad regime led to talks with Syria, efforts to reach a security agreement have so far failed, and there have been reports of deepening Israeli worries over Syria’s new Islamist-led government.
U.S. special envoy for Syria and Iraq Tom Barrack, who condemned the strikes, told Reuters that the U.S. is now working to establish a deconfliction mechanism between Israel, Turkey and Syria.
Barrack, who is also U.S. ambassador to Turkey, said Turkey had not been warned about the Israeli strikes, “and consequently observed the aircraft heading north toward its territory and therefore could have reasonably prepared its own response,” referring to possible Turkish military reaction.
“Thankfully, calm heads were able to prevent the situation from deteriorating further,” Barrack told the news agency in a phone interview.
The latest Israeli strikes will not likely lead to any escalation. Furthermore, Syria will not likely abandon its efforts to secure some agreement with Israel. Still, this does not mean that the attack will be the last. Israel is certainly expanding its red lines in the country, and will not likely give up on any of its gains, including the territories it occupied in the south after the fall of the Assad regime.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence
NOW hosted at southfront.press
Previously, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.org.
The .org domain name had been blocked by the US (NATO) (https://southfront.press/southfront-org-blocked-by-u-s-controlled-global-internet-supervisor/) globally, outlawed and without any explanation
Back before that, from 2013 to 2015, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.com
