Israel strikes Syrian airbase to prevent Turkey stationing troops

Israel strikes Syrian airbase to prevent Turkey from stationing troops — Abu al-Duhur airbase following strikes, Syria, August 18, 2026. Eight Israeli airstrikes hit an airbase in northwestern Syria early on Tuesday, Syrian state media said. Photo: Reuters

DAMASCUS,— Israeli warplanes bombed an air base in northwestern Syria early Tuesday, and Israel said the strikes were meant to stop Turkish forces from setting up there.

Turkey maintains close ties with Syria’s Islamist government and has been helping train and support the Syrian military.

Relations between Turkey and Israel remain strained, and both countries have worked to limit each other’s reach inside Syria.

Syrian state television reported that eight strikes hit the runway at Abu Duhur air base in Idlib province. The strikes damaged the runway but caused no deaths or injuries, the broadcaster said.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani spoke to reporters in Damascus and condemned what he called the “Israeli aggression.”

He described the strikes as an unjustified provocation that violated Syria’s sovereignty and threatened stability across the region and beyond.

A statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel struck the base because Syria was close to breaking an understood “status quo in security matters” by letting Turkish troops move in.

The statement said Israel had warned Syria multiple times that such a troop deployment would threaten Israeli security, and that Syria had ignored those warnings.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry issued its own statement condemning the strikes.

It called on the international community to take firmer action to stop what it described as growing Israeli aggression against Syria and to hold Israel accountable for actions that ignore international law.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group based in Britain, said foreign fighters had been staying at the base until they were told to leave recently.

The group also said Turkey, one of the main supporters of Syria’s government, had been repairing the base, which had sat unused for years during Syria’s civil war. That conflict has killed close to half a million people.

Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey who also serves as special envoy to Syria, wrote on X that Washington is deeply concerned by the confirmed Israeli airstrikes on the Abu Duhur base.

He called the strikes an unnecessary escalation that does not help regional stability.

Barrack said the Syrian government led by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, also known as Golani, has not taken an aggressive stance or kept proxy fighters, and has repeatedly shown it wants to reduce tensions with Israel.

He added that the United States has hosted talks in the past to push diplomacy forward and plans to continue doing so.

Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia also released statements criticizing the strikes.

Tensions between Israel and Turkey over Syria have grown since Bashar Assad’s government fell in December 2024, when rebel forces took control of Damascus.

After Assad’s fall, Israel carried out hundreds of airstrikes across Syria, largely targeting former Syrian army equipment to keep it out of the hands of the new leadership.

Israeli forces also took over a United Nations buffer zone in southern Syria and remain there.

Last year, Israeli drone strikes on a Damascus suburb killed eight soldiers and wounded several others.

Syria’s new leaders have said they do not seek conflict with Israel, though Israeli officials remain wary of a government formed by former Islamist rebels.

Talks between Israel and Syria, mediated by the United States and aimed at a security agreement, have continued for more than a year without a deal.

(With files from AP)