News

Greater Israel Project Continues With Impunity – Israel bombs Syrian military base

August 19, 2026

Israel launched a new wave of strikes on Syria on 18 August, despite no threat being posed to it by the extremist-led authorities in Damascus, which fought against Tel Aviv’s adversaries for years.

The new Israeli strikes hit the Abu al-Duhur Military Base in the countryside of the northern city of Idlib on Tuesday.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry released a statement condemning the attack.

It described Israel’s strikes as “an unjustified act of aggression and a dangerous escalation threatening regional security and stability.”

🔴 BREAKING: Syria accuses Israel of striking an airfield in its northwestern province of Idlib, after a security source said the out-of-service military facility had been hit. pic.twitter.com/gsLYwPNyRp

— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) August 18, 2026

“Continued Israeli attacks since 8 December 2024, while Syria exercises restraint and works to consolidate stability and avoid escalation, reveal attempts by the Israeli occupation to undermine those efforts and push the region toward further tension and instability,” the ministry added, according to Syrian state media.

BREAKING: 🇮🇱🇹🇷 Israel attacked Turkish assets in Syria

They struck Turkish military equipment at an airfield in Idlib

U.S. Special Envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, called it an ‘unnecessary escalation’ by Israel. pic.twitter.com/yl0iUUZuhU

— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) August 18, 2026

Washington also expressed “concern,” with US envoy to Syria and former Epstein associate Tom Barrack condemning “the unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability.”

We are deeply concerned that the confirmed Israeli airstrikes on Abu al-Duhur Airbase constitute an unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability.

The Al-Sharra government has neither adopted a predatory posture nor maintained proxy forces. It has, in fact,…

— Ambassador Tom Barrack (@USAMBTurkiye) August 18, 2026

Barrack also praised Damascus and its forces for posing no threat to Israel, as Damascus itself has repeatedly confirmed.

He posted on X that the government of self-appointed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa “has neither adopted a predatory posture nor maintained proxy forces. It has, in fact, repeatedly indicated a preference for de-escalation with Israel.”

According to Syrian media, eight Israeli airstrikes hit the base.

“Israeli occupation aircraft early this morning targeted the runway of the Abu Duhur military airport … with eight strikes,” sources told state television.

The attack comes not long after Damascus’s forces were said to have been given access to Washington’s “final” base in Syria, after a several-month process of US withdrawal from the country following years of occupation.

It remains unclear to what extent Washington has withdrawn. Iran recently announced operations targeting what it said were US forces and assets in Syria.

The US for years trained extremist forces at its Al-Tanf Base in Syria. It also armed and financed several other factions in Syria throughout the war, including the Noureddine al-Zinki movement, responsible for the beheading of a 12-year-old boy as well as other war crimes.

Many of these Al-Qaeda- and ISIS-linked groups, including the Noureddine al-Zinki movement, are now brigades in the new Syrian army established after the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad’s government.

This army has killed thousands of Alawites, Druze, and Kurdish civilians since the formation of the new Syrian state – but have not targeted Israeli troops which illegally occupied the country after Assad’s departure.

Damascus has openly declared that it holds no hostility toward Israel and is not looking for confrontation with it. Despite this, Israel continues to attack the country and expand its occupation of Syrian territory.

Since Assad left Syria, Israeli occupation forces have practically encircled Damascus.

Major Syrian military capabilities belonging to the former army were destroyed by Israeli attacks in the first days after Sharaa’s government took power.

Sharaa, the new president, was formerly an Al-Qaeda chief who served as deputy to late ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The Syrian president is directly responsible for brutal suicide bombings against civilians and holy sites in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq.