US rips Israel for alleged strike on Syrian airbase

President Trump’s envoy to Syria accuses Israel of bombing Syrian airbase, denouncing the attack as an “unnecessary escalation.”

By World Israel News Staff

US special envoy Tom Barrack on Tuesday publicly blamed Israel for an overnight airstrike on a Syrian military airbase near the Turkish border, calling the attack an “unnecessary escalation” and offering an unusually strong defense of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government.

Syria said eight strikes hit the Abu al-Duhur military airbase in the northwestern Idlib province early Tuesday, damaging its runway and storage facilities but causing no casualties.

Israeli sources, however, denied to the Jerusalem Post that Israel was responsible, while the IDF declined to comment to Reuters and the Associated Press.

Barrack, who serves as US ambassador to Turkey as well as President Donald Trump’s envoy for Syria and Iraq, nevertheless publicly described the attack as Israeli.

“We are deeply concerned that the confirmed Israeli airstrikes on Abu al-Duhur Airbase constitute an unnecessary escalation,” Barrack wrote on X.

The envoy said the attack “does not advance regional stability” and argued that the Sharaa government has demonstrated that it wants to avoid a confrontation with Israel.

“The Al-Sharra government has neither adopted a predatory posture nor maintained proxy forces,” Barrack said, adding that Damascus has “repeatedly indicated a preference for de-escalation with Israel.”

Barrack urged the countries to settle their differences through diplomacy rather than further military action.

“The United States continues to believe that restraint and engagement offer the more constructive course,” he said.

The statement was notable not only because a senior Trump administration official directly attributed an attack to Israel before Jerusalem had acknowledged carrying it out, but because Washington has spent more than a year trying to broker a security arrangement between Israel and Syria.

Sharaa said last month that Damascus was seeking a security agreement with Israel that could eventually pave the way for a broader peace arrangement, while insisting Syria would not surrender its claim to the Golan Heights.

“We are avoiding getting into confrontations,” Sharaa said in a July interview with Al Jazeera.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry reacted more sharply to Tuesday’s attack, describing it as an assault on the country’s sovereignty.

Damascus condemned what it called an “unjustified act of aggression” and a “dangerous escalation” threatening regional stability.

Syrian state television cited a military source saying Israeli aircraft struck Abu al-Duhur eight times, targeting the runway and other infrastructure. A civilian living near the facility and a Syrian military source told Reuters there were no casualties.

The airbase lies roughly 70 kilometers from the Turkish border and has become strategically significant amid growing competition between Israel and Turkey over the future of Syria.

Once an important Syrian military installation, Abu al-Duhur changed hands repeatedly during the country’s civil war.

It ceased operating as a dedicated military airfield more than a decade ago but has been used as a training center for Syria’s new armed forces since Assad was overthrown in December 2024.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said foreign fighters had previously been stationed at the facility but were recently told to leave. The monitoring group also said Turkey had been involved in rehabilitating the base after years of disuse.

That Turkish connection could make the attack especially sensitive.

Israel has repeatedly warned against the expansion of Turkish military influence in Syria, viewing the possibility of Turkish aircraft, drones or air-defense systems operating from Syrian bases as a potential threat to Israel’s freedom of action.

The concern has previously resulted in military action.

In April 2025, Israel struck three Syrian airbases that Turkish military teams had been examining as possible deployment sites under a proposed defense agreement with Damascus, Reuters reported at the time.

The attacks included heavy damage at the T4 base in central Syria.

A regional intelligence official told Reuters following those strikes that the attack amounted to “a tough message that Israel won’t accept the expanded Turkish presence.”

Turkey, which helped support the forces that ultimately toppled Assad and has emerged as one of Sharaa’s principal foreign backers, has sought a major role in rebuilding and training Syria’s armed forces.

Israel has viewed that growing presence with increasing suspicion.

The dispute has intensified in recent months as Syria begins rebuilding military capabilities destroyed or abandoned during the collapse of the Assad government.

Reuters reported Tuesday that Syria carried out air exercises in northern Syria earlier this month using Russian-built MiG-21 fighter jets — the first such exercises since Assad’s ouster.

Israeli security officials have also detected efforts to recruit pilots, resume flight training and rebuild elements of the Syrian air force, according to Kan.

An Israeli security source told Kan that Jerusalem was monitoring those developments closely and had raised its concerns with Washington.

Defense Minister Israel Katz has also directly warned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Israel would not tolerate the development of Syrian military capabilities that it believes could eventually threaten Israel.

Turkey has responded by accusing Israel of deliberately destabilizing its northern neighbor.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said earlier this month that Israeli attacks were among the principal threats to Syria’s stability and called for international pressure on Jerusalem to respect Syrian sovereignty.

The rhetoric between Ankara and Jerusalem has been deteriorating for months.

In June, Erdogan went further, saying Israeli military operations in Syria and Lebanon had reached a point where they were threatening Turkey itself.

“The attacks … on Lebanon and Syria have brought the issue to a point where it also threatens Turkey,” Erdogan said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has rejected Turkish accusations of violating Syrian sovereignty, arguing that Ankara itself maintains forces inside Syria and is attempting to build a strategic sphere of influence there.

Earlier this month, Sa’ar accused Turkey of having spent years “violating the sovereignty of Syria while cynically lecturing others on international law.”

IAF airstrikeSyriaThomas Barrack