Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Israel struck an air base in north-west Syria early Tuesday, saying it wanted to stop Turkish troops from deploying there. The strike hit the Abu Duhur air base in Idlib province, damaging the runway but causing no casualties, according to Syrian state television.
The attack comes amid rising tension between Israel and Turkey over Syria, where both countries have been trying to limit each other’s influence. Turkey has close ties with Syria’s government and has been helping its military, while Israel said the deployment of Turkish troops at the base would threaten its security.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Syria had been “on the verge of breaching” an agreed “status quo in security matters” by allowing Turkish troops to move into the base. “Israel repeatedly warned Syria that such a deployment would pose a threat to Israel’s security. Syria chose to ignore these warnings,” the statement said.
Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani condemned what he called the “Israeli aggression”. He said the strikes were “an unjustified provocation, a violation of Syria’s sovereignty, and a direct threat to regional and global stability”. Turkey’s Foreign Ministry also condemned the attack and called for “the international community to take a more decisive stance to end Israel’s escalating aggression against Syria and to ensure accountability for these actions that disregard international law”.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said foreign fighters had been staying at the base before they were recently asked to leave. It added that Turkey, a main backer of Syria’s government, had been rehabilitating the air base, which had been out of service for years during Syria’s conflict that left nearly half a million people dead.
Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria, said on X that Washington was “deeply concerned that the confirmed Israeli airstrikes” on the Abu Duhur air base were “an unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability”. He said the government of Syria’s Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa had neither “adopted a predatory posture nor maintained proxy forces” and had repeatedly shown a preference for de-escalation with Israel. Barrack added that the United States had hosted discussions in the past and would continue to do so to encourage diplomacy.
Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia were among the regional countries that also condemned the strikes. Tensions between Israel and Turkey over Syria have been rising since the fall of Bashar Assad’s government in December 2024, when insurgents entered Damascus. After Assad’s fall, Israel carried out hundreds of airstrikes across Syria, mainly targeting Syrian military assets, and also took control of a UN-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria, which it still occupies. Last year, Israeli drone strikes on a southern suburb of Damascus killed eight soldiers and wounded others.
The new authorities in Damascus have said they do not want a conflict with Israel, though Israel has remained suspicious of the government led by former Islamist insurgents. US-mediated talks between Israel and Syria on a security agreement have been going on for more than a year but have yet to produce a deal, with Tuesday’s strike adding to the strain.
With PTI Inputs
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
