Illustrative image. (Israeli Defense Forces)
Eight Israeli strikes hit the Abu al-Duhur air base in northwestern Syria early on August 18, targeting the runway and storage facilities, Syria’s state-run Ekhbariya TV said, citing a military source.
There were no casualties as a result of the strikes, according to the source, who told the news channel that “losses were limited to materials.”
The air base, about 70 kilometers from the Turkish border, has changed hands several times during Syria’s 14-year civil war between forces loyal to former President Bashar al-Assad and opposition factions.
Since Assad was overthrown in late 2024, the base has been used as a training center for Syria’s new military. In addition, satellite images taken by the European Union’s Sentinel-2 in recent months show that both of the air base’s runways were being refurbished.
There were rumors of a Turkish military delegation visiting Abu al-Duhur prior to the Israeli strikes, although this remains unconfirmed.
The strikes also came less than a week after a pair of restored Soviet-era fighter bombers were spotted flying over northwestern Syria. Hebrew media reported after the sortie that the Israeli defense establishment was worried that this could threaten its freedom of action in Syrian airspace.
There were also Hebrew media reports of United States President Donald Trump rejecting an Israeli request to carry out strikes in Syria in response to attempts by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to strengthen Turkey’s military presence in the country with the approval of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Israel’s relations with Turkey worsened as a result of the war in the Gaza Strip, and while the fall of the regime of former President Bashar al-Assad in Syria led to talks with Damascus, efforts to reach a security agreement have so far failed, and there have been reports of deepening Israeli worries over Syria’s new government.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry condemned the Israeli strikes on Abu al-Duhur, describing them in a statement carried by the state-run SANA news agency as “unjustified.”
The ministry “condemns in the strongest terms the strikes targeting” the Abu al-Duhur air base in Idlib governorate “and considers them an unjustified act of aggression,” the statement says, urging the international community and the United Nations Security Council to “take a firm position against Israel’s repeated violations of Syrian sovereignty.”
Another condemnation came from the U.S. special presidential envoy to Syria and Iraq, who said that the Israeli strikes on Syria constitute an “unnecessary escalation” that does not advance regional stability.
In a statement on X, Ambassador Tom Barrack said the U.S. was deeply concerned by the attacks, and added that Washington was encouraging all parties to prioritize “logical discourse” over further military incidents.
“The al-Sharaa government has neither adopted a predatory posture nor maintained proxy forces. It has, in fact, repeatedly indicated a preference for de-escalation with Israel,” the statement reads. “The United States has in the past, and will continue in the future, to host discussions to encourage diplomatic cadence over kinetic frustration for both nations.”
It’s worth noting that earlier in the month, the U.S. brokered an agreement between Damascus and the UN nuclear watchdog, allowing the latter to extract nuclear material from a hidden facility in Syria. The agreement was reportedly reached after Israel threatened to attack the facility, known as “Site 99.”
The latest strikes indicate that the recent concessions by Damascus have failed to appease Israel, which does not seem enthusiastic about reaching a security agreement with Syria. Israel has even repeatedly rejected demands to withdraw from the territories it occupied in southern Syria after the fall of the Assad regime.
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