Israel strike on Syria base nearly triggered clash with Turkiye, says US envoy

A US envoy said Israel struck Syria's Abu Duhur air base without warning Washington or Turkiye. The move nearly sparked a wider confrontation and deepened Turkish-Israeli tensions.

In Short

• Abu Duhur air base was damaged, but no casualties were reported
• Netanyahu's office cited an alleged breach involving possible Turkish troop deployment
• Washington assessed Turkish military expansion at the base was not underway

US special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack has said Israel did not warn the United States before it struck the Abu Duhur air base in northern Syria on Tuesday, despite fears that the move could trigger a direct confrontation with Turkiye. Barrack, who is also the US ambassador to Turkiye, said the episode brought the two sides dangerously close to escalation.

The strike caused damage but no casualties. In the aftermath, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the base was attacked because Syria was "on the verge of breaching" an agreement by allowing Turkish troops to deploy there.

Barrack said the attack on the air base could have been Israel "baiting the Turks ... that was the serious and worrying part". He said it was likely that Israel had intelligence suggesting Turkiye may be bolstering its presence in the area and that "a commander somewhere in the field made a decision 'We're not going to let that happen' ... What they didn't do is tell us or Turkiye". He added that another possible reason for the strike was miscommunication between Israel's military and intelligence agency. Abu Duhur lies about 80 km east of the Turkish border. Barrack's comments were published on X late Friday by Mario Nawfal, a Lebanese-Australian entrepreneur.

Explaining how close the situation came to direct confrontation, Barrack said: "When they (the Turkish military) see these jets coming towards the border and they don't know what the purpose, direction or intention is, they start to say 'We're going to have to scramble our own.'" He also pointed out that Turkiye had shot down a Russian jet over its Syrian frontier in 2015. "The unintended consequence of a mistake could be really consequential," he said.

Two Syrian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment publicly, said on Wednesday that a Turkish delegation had visited the air base in Idlib province a day before the air strike to review reconstruction work underway there. Barrack said Israel had raised concerns about Turkish military activity at the base, but the US concluded that was "not happening". Turkiye has been supporting Syria's efforts to rebuild its armed forces by training Syrian personnel and supplying equipment and logistical support, and the two countries signed an agreement last year formalising military cooperation. Turkish officials have repeatedly said Ankara does not see Syria's security as separate from its own.

Israel, meanwhile, has remained suspicious of Syria's new authorities in Damascus, led by former Islamist insurgents, even as interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa has repeatedly said he does not want a conflict with Israel. Israel carried out hundreds of airstrikes across Syria after the fall of Bashar Assad's government in late 2024, and its military also seized control of a UN-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria, which it still occupies. Turkiye, which recently signed a defence pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, gave no indication it would respond militarily to the Israeli strikes, but the episode added further strain to already tense Turkish-Israeli relations.

With PTI Inputs

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