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Unknown Airstrikes Target Al-Tabqa Military Airport Amid Military Mobilization and Field Movements
The area surrounding Al-Tabqa military airport in southeastern Idlib countryside witnessed a state of alert among government forces at dawn on Tuesday, following several airstrikes carried out by unidentified aircraft. No information has been reported about human casualties so far.
According to the information available, the strikes targeted the runway of Al-Tabqa military airport and its surrounding area, coinciding with drone activity in the skies above the region. Later, the sound of a helicopter was heard flying over the northern skies of Idlib province.
Sources familiar with the matter said that fighters of non-Syrian nationalities had been stationed inside the airport in the past period, before being asked to leave it and disperse into the surrounding areas in recent weeks.
The sources also stated that Turkish vehicles and equipment have been working for some time on rehabilitating Al-Tabqa military airport, which has been out of service for years, as part of technical and logistical efforts aimed at restoring its operation.
They added that a Turkish military delegation visited the airport in recent days and inspected the ongoing rehabilitation work there, while work continues inside the airport and in its surroundings.
So far, the identity of the aircraft that carried out the strikes, as well as the nature of the targets hit, remains unknown. No official statement has been issued regarding the bombing or its results.
Al-Tabqa military airport is located about 27 kilometers east of the city of Saraqib, near the town of Al-Tabqa, and is considered one of the strategically important military sites in the region due to its location linking the provinces of Idlib, Hama, and Aleppo, and its proximity to the Syrian desert.
The targeting of the airport comes at a time when several areas in Syria are witnessing troop movements and redeployments of military formations, alongside an expanding Turkish military presence in a number of locations. Special sources previously told the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that factions affiliated with the Syrian Ministry of Defense stationed in northern Latakia had received instructions to move to eastern Syria, in parallel with the arrival of military reinforcements to the air defense base in Ras al-Basit, including missiles and artillery, amid ongoing field arrangements and security-related military measures.
The attack on the airport also raises questions about whether the strikes are linked to the ongoing rehabilitation work inside it, especially after the recent visit by a Turkish military delegation to the site and the continued presence of Turkish vehicles and equipment working to restore the airport after many years out of service.
