Damascus and Washington accuse Israel of attacking a Syrian military airport

US President's special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, on Tuesday blamed Israel for strikes earlier in the day on a Syrian military airport, which was being renovated with Turkish assistance according to an NGO, while Damascus condemned an "unjustified aggression" by its neighbor.

Israel did not immediately respond to these allegations.

The United States is "deeply concerned" by "confirmed Israeli airstrikes against the Abu Dhuhour airbase" in Idlib province (northwest), said Mr. Barrack, who is also the US ambassador to Turkey, denouncing "an unnecessary escalation that does nothing to promote regional stability."

The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had just condemned "in the strongest terms" what it described as "an unjustified act of aggression" by Israel against this military airport.

Citing a military source, Syrian state television had previously announced that Israeli aircraft had targeted early in the morning "the runway" of the "Abu Dhuhour" base (...) with eight strikes, causing "material damage" but no casualties.

Syrian diplomacy also called on the international community and the UN Security Council to "adopt a firm position against repeated violations by Israel of Syrian sovereignty".

Israel has launched hundreds of strikes against Syria since the overthrow, in December 2024, of President Bashar al-Assad by a coalition of Islamist groups.

He also deployed troops in the UN-monitored buffer zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights, claiming to have established a "safe zone" there, which he insists on maintaining.

- Recent Turkish visit -

The airport, which suffered heavy damage during the Syrian civil war, has been out of service since 2012, according to a security source speaking to AFP, and is currently protected by Syrian Ministry of Defense forces.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based NGO with a vast network of sources in Syria, these strikes took place after "the visit, in recent days, of a Turkish military delegation to the airport as part of ongoing efforts to put it back into service".

Turkey, whose relations with Israel have been abysmal since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, is a key ally of the new Syrian authorities.

Syria has repeatedly condemned Israeli operations on its territory and demanded the withdrawal of Israeli troops deployed there.

But Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz reiterated last week that Tel Aviv would maintain forces there.

Despite these tensions, Israel and the new Syrian authorities have held several rounds of direct talks and agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism.

Upon coming to power in December 2024, the new Islamist authorities in Damascus took control of Abu Dhuhour airport, which had been held by the forces of ousted President Bashar al-Assad since late 2018, after armed rebel and jihadist factions had taken control of much of Idlib province three years earlier.

The new authorities have joined the US-led international coalition in the fight against the jihadist group "Islamic State" (IS), remnants of which remain active in the country.

Damascus also announced on Tuesday that it had arrested a senior ISIS commander in the north of the country.

Once master of vast portions of Syria and Iraq, ISIS was territorially defeated in Syria in 2019, but the group occasionally claims responsibility for attacks mainly targeting Syrian security forces.